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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




THE 

MARCH OF METHODISM 

FROM EPWORTH ARODND THE GLOBE 

OUTLINES OFTHE HISTORY, DOCTRINE, AND POLITY OF 
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

/ 

By JAMES MCGEE 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

BY 

BISHOP JAMES N. FITZGERALD, LL.D. 

President of the Epworth League 



" Like a mighty army Moves the Church of God ; 
Brothers, we are treading Where the saints have trod ; 
We are not divided, All one body we, 
One in hope and doctrine, One in charity " 



NEW YORK: HUNT & EATON 
CINCINNATI: CRANSTON & CURTS 



H-jUH?^ 



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Copyright, 1892, by 

HUNT & EATON, 

New York. 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRES3 

WASHINGTON 



Electrotyped, printed, and bound by 

HUNT & EATON, 

150 Fifth Avenue, New York. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Eveey person, and particularly every Christian, 
should seek to become informed in regard to the Church. 
The first step in acquiring such information is the 
study of one's own branch of the Church; for the mas- 
tering of a single creed will lead to an understanding 
of many creeds. So the acquisition of full knowledge 
of the doctrines, polity, and history of Methodism im- 
plies the acquisition of wide knowledge of the doctrines, 
polity, and history of other branches of the Christian 
Church. 

For a century and a half Methodism has stood be- 
fore the world. She has gladly and boldly proclaimed 
her doctrines and polity. Her history has been written 
with great particularity, and now fills many volumes, 
which are being read and studied by those who have 
leisure and taste for such exercise. But, valuable as 
this voluminous history is, there has been an urgent de- 
mand for another — a book from which the busiest man 
may gain accurate information concerning the rise and 
progress of Methodism. One of the calls of the age is 
for condensation. Comparatively few are able to make 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

satisfactory response. " Boiling down " is a tedious and 
difficult work. Nevertheless the writer of this little 
volume, Mr. James McGee, an honored layman, has 
been moved to undertake it. Proof of the skill and suc- 
cess with which he has performed it may be seen in 
nearly every line that he has written. Writer and 
reader may well be congratulated. 

The unique manner in which the author brings us to 
the beginning of the "March" is worthy of special 
notice. By joining link to link he runs a chain from 
the time of Christ to the time of Wesley, and thence 
to our own time. He shows almost at a glance all of 
the developments of Methodism, even the latest — the 
Epworth League. 

From Epworth Rectory to Epworth League the 
march of Methodism has been victorious and grand. 
The conflicts have been many and severe, but the con- 
quests have been glorious. The story as now recited 
will be an inspiration to multitudes who are longing to 
live holy lives, and to influence their fellows to " flee 
from the wrath to come." 

The members of the Holy Club little dreamed of the 
results that were to flow from the assembling of them- 
selves together. Organization into classes, societies and 
Conferences seemed imperative; general rules became 
necessary; statement of doctrine was required; lay 
preaching, itinerancy, and episcopacy were emergent; 
an alliance was demanded between Church and school; 



INTRODUCTION. V 

so one reached forth from Kings wood, and the other 
from Horse Fair. Thus their hands were clasped, and 
from Bristol they have marched together to the four 
quarters of the globe. 

From this book the one w T ho has " a spare moment 
only now and then " may gather that which will serve 
him well whenever inquiry may be made concerning 
any essential feature of the subject. Henceforth it 
will be reasonable to expect every young Methodist, 
and especially every Epworth Leaguer, to be familiar 
with at least the outlines of Methodist history, and to 
be able to trace its connection with, the centuries that 
preceded it. And when all the centuries shall have 
passed may it be seen that the volume which is now 
introduced has enlightened multitudes of readers, and 
been the means of turning many to righteousness. 

J. N. FitzGerald. 

September 20, 1892. 



CONTENTS, 



I. HISTORICAL SETTING. 

PAGE 

Preliminary 5 

Primitive Organization 6 

Primitive Methods 1 

Primitive Creeds *T 

Persecution 8 

Decline of True Religion 8 

Protest, Persecution, Reformation 10 

Christianity in England 10 



II. PROVIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT. 

Demanded by the Times 13 

The Movement Begun 14 

The Holy Club 15 

Epworth Rectory 15 

The Wesley Family 18 

John "Wesley (Grandfather) 18 

Samuel Wesley (Father) 19 

Susannah Wesley (Mother) 19 

Three Great Leaders 20 

John Wesley 20 

Charles Wesley 24 

George Whitefield 24 

III. LAYING FOUNDATIONS. 

Assurance of Faith 27 

Societies Formed 28 

Peculiar Institutions 30 



25 CONTENTS. 

Peculiar Institutions — Continued. page 

General Rules 30 

Classes and Bands 33 

Love Feast 33 

Watchnight '. 33 

Itinerant Preachers 34 

Lay Preaching 34 

The Conference 34 

IV. PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 

The Mission to the Masses 36 

America Stirred 37 

The Stream Parted 38 

In Labors Abundant 39 

The Work Consolidated 40 

Important Conferences , 42 



V. FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH. 

Susannah Wesley . . . „ 49 

George Whitefield 50 

Charles Wesley 51 

John Fletcher 51 

Mary Fletcher 53 

Selina, Countess of Huntingdon 53 

John Wesley 53 



VI. NEW MEN" AND NEW MEASURES. 

The Transition Period 57 

Adam Clarke 58 

Richard Watson 58 

Jabez Bunting 58 

Samuel Hick 59 

William Carvosso 59 

Ann Cutler 59 

Dinah Evans 59 



CONTENTS. O 

PAGK 

VII. TRIUMPHS IN THE NEW WORLD. 

The Beginnings 61 

Calls for Help 63 

A Period of Perplexity 66 

The Methodist Episcopal Church 68 

Articles of Religion , 69 

Distinguished Pioneers TO 

Thomas Coke 70 

Francis Asbury 11 

Jesse Lee 72 

Freeborn Garrettson 73 

Ezekiel Cooper 73 

Important Legislation. 74 

The Field and the Men. , 75 

John Dickins 75 

George Dougharty 76 

Billy Hibbard 77 

Peter Cartwright 77 

Henry B. Bascom 78 

VIII. THE NEW CENTURY. 

1800-1812, Delegated General Conference 79 

1812-1832, Important Secessions 80 

1832-1844, The Great Division 81 

1844-1872, Lay Delegation 82 

1872-1884, Centennial of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 85 

1884-1892, Problems of To-day 89 

IX. WORLD-WIDE CONQUESTS. 

First Ecumenical Conference 103 

Second Ecumenical Conference 104 

Survey of the Field 108 

Great Britain 108 

France Ill 

Methodist Episcopal Conferences on the Continent of 

Europe ill 



4 CONTENTS. 

Survey of the Field — Continued. page 

West Indies 110 

Australia . ■ Ill 

Canada 113 

Methodist Episcopal Church, South 114 

Methodist Episcopal Church 116 

X. ELEMENTS OF POWER. 

Spirit and Aim 118 

Doctrine 120 

Organization 123 

Peculiar Institutions ... 124 

XI. AGGRESSIVE AGENCIES. 

Missionary Society 126 

Woman's Foreign Missionary Society 128 

Woman's Home Missionary Soceity 129 

Deaconess's Work 129 

Sunday School Union. 129 

Tract Society 130 

Board of Education 131 

Board of Church Extension 131 

Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society 132 

Book Concern 133 

Epworth League 134 

XII. CONCLUSION. 

Omitted Work — Inspiring Words 13 1 



THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 



i. 

HISTORICAL SETTING. 

1 . Preliminary. — When our Lord and Master, Jesus 
Christ, was about to leave this world and ascend to 
the Father he gave this parting command to his disci- 
ples : "Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to every creature" (Mark xvi, 15); and it is 
added, "they went forth, and preached everywhere" 
(Mark xvi, 20). The day of Pentecost found the 
disciples at Jerusalem numbering about one hun- 
dred and twenty (Acts i, 15), and on that memor- 
able occasion "there were added unto them about 
three thousand souls;" "and the Lord added to the 
church daily such as should be saved " (Acts ii, 41, 47). 
"And believers were the more added to the Lord, mul- 
titudes both of men and women " (Acts v, 14). The 
holy lives and earnest preaching of these early disciples 
brought upon them cruel persecution. Stephen was 
stoned to death and became the first martyr of the fol- 
lowers of Jesus (Acts vii, 57-60). Saul of Tarsus, who 
stood by and consented to the death of Stephen, was 
soon found leading in the attempt to destroy the infant 
Church. " He made havoc of the church, entering into 



D THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

every house, and haling men and women committed 
them to prison " (Acts viii, 3). Thus persecuted they 
were scattered, but " they that were scattered abroad 
went everywhere preaching the word" (Acts viii, 4). 
The sudden and miraculous conversion of Saul (after- 
ward known as Paul, see Acts ix) brought temporary 
relief to the little band. "Then had the churches 
rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and 
were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and 
in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied" 
(Acts ix, 31). The followers of Jesus now became known 
as " Christians," having been first called by this name 
at Antioch (Acts xi, 26). With increase of numbers and 
of separate congregations it soon became necessary to 
give attention to organization, methods of work, and 
formulated creeds. 

2. Primitive Organization. — There is no record 
in the New Testament that our Lord Jesus Christ left 
any specific instructions as to church government. 
That the authority of the apostles was recognized dur- 
ing their lifetime may be inferred from Acts xv, 22-29. 
The growth of the Church soon made necessary the ap- 
pointment of other officers; thus were ordained deacons 
and elders or bishops. "That the order of deacons 
is so seldom expressly named is, perhaps, owing to the 
circumstance that the title of presbyter, or elder, is 
sometimes used as a general appellation for church 
officers, including the inferior order of deacons, as it 
sometimes did the higher office of the apostles. . . . The 
only bishops mentioned in the New Testament were 
simple presbyters." (Jacob, ^Ecclesiastical Polity of 
the New Testament^) 



HISTORICAL SETTING. 7 

3. Primitive Methods. — From the second chapter 
of Acts, verses 41, 47, we get a glimpse of the simplicity 
of the early Christian life. Meeting from house to 
house, holding agapce, or love feasts, partaking fre- 
quently of " the Lord's Supper," praying and giving — 
these were the methods which were blessed of the Lord 
in daily additions to the Church. Justin, writing about 
the middle of the second century, confirms the New 
Testament record. He says: "On the day which is 
called Sunday there is an assembly in the same place of 
all who live in cities or in country districts; the rec- 
ords of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are 
read as long as we have time. . . . The president verbally 
instructs and exhorts us to the imitation of these ex- 
cellent things ; then we altogether rise and offer up our 
prayers; . . . when we have concluded our prayer bread 
is brought and wine and water; and the president in like 
manner offers up prayers and thanksgivings with all 
his strength, and the people give their assent by saying 
1 Amen ; ' and there is a distribution and partaking by 
everyone of the eucharistic elements, and to those 
who are not present they are sent by the hands of the 
deacons; and such as are in prosperous circumstances, 
and wish to do so, give what they will, each according 
to his choice; and what is collected is placed in the 
hands of the president, who assists the orphans and 
widows and such as through sickness, or any other 
cause, are in want; and to those who are in bonds, and 
to strangers from afar, and, in a word, to all who are 
in need, he is a protector." (G. P. Fisher, The Begin- 
nings of Christianity.) 

4. Primitive Creed. — There was a single overmas- 



8 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

tering theme in the minds of the early evangelists; they 
preached "Jesus, and the resurrection " (Acts xvii, 18). 
" The first express confession of faith is the testimony 
of Peter, that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the 
living God. The next is the trinitarian baptismal 
formula. Out of this gradually grew the so-called 
Apostles' Creed, which is also trinitarian in structure, 
but gives the confession of Christ the central and largest 
place. Though not traceable in its present shape above 
the fourth century, and found in the second and third 
in different longer or shorter forms, it is in substance 
altogether apostolic, and exhibits an incomparable sum- 
mary of the leading facts in the revelation of the triune 
God from the creation of the world to the resurrection 
of the body." (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian 
Church.) 

5. Persecution. — For three hundred years the 
Church was persecuted, but flourished amid sword 
and flame. There are ten several persecutions noted 
by historians covering the period from the reign of 
Nero to that of Diocletian. " The human imagination 
was, indeed, almost exhausted in inventing a variety of 
tortures. Some were impaled alive; some had their 
limbs broken, and in that condition were left to expire ; 
some were roasted by slow fires; and some suspended 
by their feet with their heads downward, and, a fire 
being placed under them, were suffocated by the smoke. 
The few who were not capitally punished had their 
limbs and their features mutilated." (See McClintock 
and Strong's Encyclopaedia, article "Persecutions of 
Christians.") 

6. Decline of True Religion.— The Edict of Tol- 



HISTORICAL SETTING. V 

eration issued by Constantine the Great in 313 put an 
end to persecution, but paved the way for the practical 
union of Church and State. Two great ecclesiastical 
bodies were gradually developed — the Eastern, with its 
patriarch at Constantinople; the Western, with its pope 
at Rome, both claiming apostolic succession for their 
bishops, and both countenancing gross errors in doc- 
trine and usage. Rome, as the most powerful city in 
the world, sought for mastery in the Church as in 
temporal affairs. The bishops of the different parts of 
the empire yielded to the bishop of Rome, who was not 
slow to usurp power. " The Western bishops favored 
this encroachment of the Roman pastors, either from 
jealousy of the Eastern bishops or because they pre- 
ferred submitting to the supremacy of a pope rather 
than to the domination of a temporal power. On the 
other hand, the theological sects that distracted the 
East strove, each for itself, to interest Rome in its favor; 
they looked for victory in the support of the principal 
Church of the West. Rome carefully registered these 
applications and intercessions, and smiled to see all na- 
tions voluntarily throwing themselves into her arms. She 
neglected no opportunity of increasing and extending 
her power. The praises and flattery, the exaggerated 
compliments and consultations of other Churches, be- 
came in her eyes and in her hands the titles and 
documents of her authority." (D'Aubigne, History of 
the Reformation?) The Eastern Church was weakened 
by the advance of Mohammedanism, but the Roman 
Church was united and became dominant in the West. 
With increase of wealth and temporal power came de- 
cline in religious life, and the Dark Ages ensued. 



10 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

7. Protest, Persecution, Reformation. — The 
lapse of the Roman Church into worldliness and error 
called forth earnest protests from many in whom the 
true spirit of Christianity still existed; of these the 
Waldenses, Albigenses, and Hussites were noble exam- 
ples. Fierce persecutions followed. Martin Luther, 
born in 1483, was the chosen instrument in the hands 
of God for inaugurating a revival of true religion, 
which resulted in the formation of a Protestant Church, 
•first in Germany and subsequently in England — a body 
of believers protesting against the errors and worldli- 
ness of Rome and insisting on a vital piety, which 
found its expression in the Bible statement, " The just 
shall live by faith." 

8. Christianity in England. — The Roman Church 
obtained but limited power in England up to the end 
of the sixth century, when, under Pope Gregory I ? 
Augustine was sent to convert those not already ad- 
herents of Christianity. "Gregory had noted the 
white bodies, the fair faces, the golden hair of some 
youths who stood bound in the market-place of Rome. 
' From what country do these slaves come ? ' he asked 
the traders who brought them. 'They are English, 
Angles,' the slave-dealers answered. The deacon's 
pity veiled itself in poetic humor. ' Not Angles, but 
Angels,' he said, 'with faces so Angel-like ! From 
what country come they ? ' ' They come,' said the 
merchant, 'from Deira.' ' De ira,' was the untranslat- 
able reply; ' aye, plucked from God's ire and called to 
Christ's mercy ! And what is the name of their king ? ' 
' iElla,' they told him ; and Gregory seized on the words 
as of good omen. * Alleluia shall be sung in ^Ella's 



HISTORICAL SETTING. 11 

land ! ' he cried, and passed on, musing how the angel 
faces should be brought to sing it. . . . After cautious 
negotiations with the rulers of Gaul he sent a Roman 
abbot, Augustine, at the head of a band of monks, to 
preach the Gospel to the English people. . . . The band 
of monks entered Canterbury bearing before them a 
silver cross with a picture of Christ, and singing in 
concert the litany of their Church. ' Turn from this 
city, Lord,' they sang, * thine anger and wrath, and 
turn it from thy holy house, for we have sinned.' And 
then in strange contrast came the jubilant cry of the 
older Hebrew worship, the cry which Gregory had 
wrested in prophetic earnestness from the name of the 
Yorkshire king in the Roman market-place, ' Alleluia ! ' " 
(Green, Short History of the English People.) In the 
latter part of the seventh century the Roman and Brit- 
ish Christians were united in one body under Theodore, 
whom the pope had sent over in 668 to be primate of 
England. Then began a series of struggles between 
the civil and religious power for supremacy. King 
John came to the throne in 1199. In 1205 he was drawn 
into a controversy with Pope Innocent III regarding 
the appointment of an archbishop to the see of Canter- 
bury. Stubbornly refusing, at first, to yield to the de- 
mands of the pope, he, nevertheless, in 1213 made ab- 
ject submission to the Roman see, and England from 
that time up to the accession of Henry VIII, in 1509, 
was under the domination of Rome. Subsequently, un- 
der different pretexts, Parliament largely abridged the 
power of the pope, and finally, in 1534, declared Henry 
"on earth supreme head of the Church of England." 
Thus was the way prepared for Protestantism. Under 



12 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

Queen Mary, in 1553, there was a Catholic reaction and 
much persecution, but at her death, in 1558, Elizabeth 
became queen, and Protestantism again became the 
established religion. " From the time of Henry VIII to 
the time of Charles I the Church had been looked upon 
primarily as an instrument for securing by moral and 
religious influences the social and political ends of the 
state. Under the commonwealth the state, in its turn, 
was regarded primarily as an instrument for securing 
through its political and social influences the moral and 
religious ends of the Church." ( Green.) The restoration 
under Charles II, while confirming the State Church 
as Protestant, nevertheless brought severe punishment 
and suffering for the " Nonconformists " to the state re- 
ligion. The wars and intrigues during the subsequent 
reigns down to the time of George II gave but little 
opportunity for the growth and development of a pure 
Church. " There was a revolt against religion and 
against churches in both the extremes of English 
society." But we are now to observe the advent of a 
new reformation, " which changed after a time the whole 
tone of English society." 



PROVIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT. 13 



II. 

PROVIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT. 

1. Demanded by the Times. — The conflict be- 
tween Roman Catholicism and Protestantism on the 
one hand, and between the Church and the State on 
the other, had reached a climax in a state religion 
which though nominally Protestant was shorn of all 
spiritual power. " Never has century risen on Chris- 
tian England so void of soul and faith as that which 
opened with Queen Anne, and which reached its misty 
noon beneath the second George — a dewless night suc- 
ceeded by a sunless dawn." Acts of Parliament had 
deprived Dissenters of preferment and restricted their 
right to worship and to teach. Infidelity was rife. 
The court was corrupt. Public morals were at a low 
ebb. The Sabbath was profaned. The clergy were 
ignorant. The Church of England was full of dissen- 
sion and intolerance. As to the teachings of the pul- 
pit the historian declares : " The vicarious atonement 
of Christ, the necessity to salvation of a new birth, of 
faith, of the constant and sustaining action of the di- 
vine Spirit upon the believer's soul, are doctrines which 
in the eyes of the modern evangelical constitute at 
once the most vital and the most influential portions of 
Christianity; but they are doctrines which, during the 
greater part of the eighteenth century, were seldom 
heard from a Church of England pulpit." (Lecky, 



14 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

England in the Eighteenth Century?) " Of the prominent 
statesmen of the time the greater part were unbelievers 
in any form of Christianity, and distinguished for the 
grossness and immorality of their lives. Drunkenness 
and foul talk were thought no discredit. Purity and 
fidelity to the marriage vow were sneered out of fash- 
ion. At the other end of the social scale lay the masses 
of the poor. They were ignorant and brutal to a de- 
gree which it is hard to conceive, for the increase of 
population which followed on the growth of towns and 
the development of commerce had been met by no 
effort for their religious or educational improvement. 
Schools there were none, save the grammar schools of 
Edward and Elizabeth, and some newly established 
* circulating schools' in Wales, for religious education. 
The rural peasantry, who were fast being reduced to 
pauperism by the abuse of the poor laws, were left 
without much moral or religious training of any sort. 
Within the town things were worse. The criminal 
class gathered boldness and numbers in the face of 
ruthless laws which only testified to the terror of 
society, laws which made it a capital crime to cut down 
a cherry tree and which strung up twenty young 
thieves of a morning in front of Newgate, while the 
introduction of gin gave a new impetus to drunkenness. 
In the streets of London, at one time, ginshops invited 
every passer-by to get drunk for a penny or dead drunk 
for twopence." ( Green?) 

2. The Movement Begun. — It was at this time 
of spiritual darkness and dismay that Methodism came 
to shed abroad the pure light of the Gospel, to revive 
primitive Christianity, to bring hope and comfort to 



PROVIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT. 15 

the despairing, and infuse new life and courage into 
the hearts of the faithful. " England remained at heart 
religious. In the middle class the old Puritan spirit 
lived on unchanged." 

3. The Holy Club.— It was at Oxford, in 1*729, that 
Methodism had its birth. It had no other significance 
at first than that of the earnest purpose of several 
students to devote themselves to lives of piety and use- 
fulness. To secure these results they gave themselves 
np to the study of the Scriptures and to prayer. They 
partook of the Lord's Supper weekly and fasted twice 
a week. They visited the sick in their homes and en- 
gaged in instructing the prisoners once or twice a week. 
These faithful labors secured for the little band the 
sneers of their companions. They were styled " Holy 
Club," " Bible Bigots," and " Sacramentarians." Soon 
was added, because of their methodical habits, the 
epithet " Methodists," which, though given in derision, 
was finally accepted as a worthy name for a great branch 
of the Christian Church. The names of the first mem- 
bers of the "Holy Club " are cherished with reverence. 
They are " Mr. John Wesley, who was Fellow of Lin- 
coln College; his brother Charles, student of Christ 
Church; Mr. Morgan, commoner of Christ Church, the 
son of an Irish gentleman; and Mr. Kirkham, of Mer- 
ton College." Later on their numbers increased, and in 
1735 there was added to them Mr. George Whitefield, 
"the prince of preachers — a glorious emblem of the 
apocalyptic angel flying through the midst of heaven 
with the good tidings of great joy unto all people." 
(Tyerman, Life and Times of JoTin Wesley.) 

4. Ep worth Rectory. — Dear to the heart of all 



16 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

loyal Methodists is the name "Ep worth." It was a happy 
thought which gave to our Hymnal and our League the 
name of the rectory made sacred by the consecrated 
labors of Samuel Wesley; the home made dear by the 
wise and loving administration of Susannah Wesley; 
the birthplace of John and Charles; the center from 
which radiated those blessed influences which molded 
their lives and conferred lasting benefits on the Church 
and the world. " In the old parish in Ep worth, in Lin- 
colnshire, England, lived the earnest, eccentric, and 
scholarly father, and the gifted, wise, and consecrated 
mother of the illustrious John and Charles Wesley. 
The story of Samuel Wesley's ministry at Epworth, 
extending over a period of thirty-nine years — from 1696 
to 1735 — is alive with interest. The people whom he 
served were, for the most part, poor, ignorant, coarse, 
and cruel. Those were days of political strife, when 
missiles and firebrands were used as arguments. The 
godly rector, unflinching in his devotion to conviction^ 
paid the price of his fidelity. In poverty most op- 
pressive, in conflicts most bitter, in labors most abun- 
dant, did the old rectory of Epworth hold and train the 
remarkable family from which were to come forth two 
of the most widely known and most successful workers 
in the Church of God — the one a preacher and bishop, the 
other a writer of sacred hymns. By sermon and song 
they two went forth to make known to the world the 
exceeding glory and the saving power of the Lord Jesus, 
to defend by Scripture the great doctrines of redemp- 
tion, and by persuasive song to win the hearts of men 
from sin to righteousness, from self to Christ. How- 
ever grand the work and its results we must not forget 



PROVIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT. 17 

that the beginnings and the most valuable preparations 
were at Epworth, where Samuel Wesley studied and 
prayed and served, and where Susannah Wesley trained 
her children, counseled her husband, instructed their 
parishioners, and walked with God. Before Oxford 
was Epworth. Before Bristol and City Road Chapel 
was Epworth." (Bishop J. H. Vincent, Introduction to 
Epworth Hymnal?) As we have seen, the life at the 
rectory was one of toil and privation. Nineteen chil- 
dren were born to these godly parents, " most of whom 
lived to be educated, and ten came to man and woman's 
estate. Her son John mentions the calm serenity with 
which his mother transacted business, wrote letters, 
and conversed, surrounded by her thirteen children." 
(Clarke, Wesley Family?) We catch glimpses of the 
methods employed in the Epworth Rectory in a let- 
ter written from thence by Mrs. Wesley to her son, 
July 24, 1732: "According to your desire I have col- 
lected the principal rules I observed in educating my 
family. The children were always put into a regular 
method of living, in such things as they were capable 
of, from their birth. . . . When turned a year old they 
were taught to fear the rod and cry softly. ... As soon 
as they were grown pretty strong they were confined 

to three meals a day They were never suffered to 

choose their meat, but always made to eat such things as 
were provided for the family. ... At seven the maid 
washed them, and, beginning with the youngest, she un- 
dressed and got them all to bed by eight, at which time 
she left them in their several rooms awake. . . . Our chil- 
dren were taught, as soon as they could speak, the 
Lord's Prayer. . . . They were early made to distinguish 



18 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

the Sabbaths from other days. . . . They were soon taught 
to be still at family prayers. . . . They were made to un- 
derstand, they might have nothing they cried for. . . . 
There were several by-laws observed among us: 
1. Whoever was charged with a fault, of which they 
were guilty, if they would ingenuously confess it, and 
promise to amend, should not be beaten. 2. No sinful 
action, as lying, etc., should ever pass unpunished. 
3. No child should be ever chided or beat twice for the 
same fault. 4. Every act of obedience should be com- 
mended and frequently rewarded. 5. Every act of obe- 
dience, though the performance was not well, should be 
kindly accepted, and the child with sweetness directed 
how to do better. 6. None suffered to invade the prop- 
erty of another in the smallest matter. 7. Promises 
be strictly observed. . . a gift once bestowed be not re- 
sumed, unless it were conditional, and the condition 
not performed. 8. No girl be taught to work till she 
can read very well, and then she be kept to her work 
with the same application, and. for the same time that 
she was held to in reading." The education of the 
children began when they were five years old, and was 
superintended chiefly by Mrs. Wesley. She never lost 
sight of her children when they left the home, and they 
were accustomed to consult her on all matters of inter- 
est. " Into all situations she followed them with her 
prayers and counsels ; and her sons, even when at the 
university, found the utility of her wise and parental 
instruction. They proposed to her all their doubts and 
consulted her in all difficulties." {Clarke.) 

5. The "Wesley Family. — John Wesley, the grand- 
father of John and Charles, was vicar of Winterbourn, 



PROVIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT. 19 

Whitechurch, Dorsetshire, and was much persecuted 
because of his opposition to the required uniformity 
to the state Church. The Act of Uniformity passed in 
the reign of Charles II, in 1662, led to his dismissal 
from Whitechurch. He said that he could not take 
the necessary oath because it " would be juggling with 
God, with the king, and with conscience." " He was 
often disturbed, several times apprehended, and four 
times imprisoned." John Wesley left two sons, Mat- 
thew and Samuel, the latter the father of John and 
Charles. 

Samuel Wesley was born at Whitechurch, in the year 
1666. His early education was among the Dissenters. 
At the age of about sixteen, as the result of some read- 
ing and debate, he formed a resolution to renounce the 
Dissenters and attach himself to the Established Church. 
He therefore set out on foot to Oxford, and entered 
himself at Exeter College. He entered as a servitor 
and helped to support himself with his pen during the 
next five years, graduating in 1688. In 1689 he married 
Susannah, daughter of Dr. Samuel Annesley, an eminent 
Nonconformist divine. In 1696 he was appointed to 
the. living of Epworth in Lincolnshire, where he died 
in 1735. He was a prolific writer of both prose and 
poetry. 

Susannah Wesley was not less remarkable than her 
husband. She was a woman of strong intellectual 
powers, and was at the same time a model housekeeper. 
Learning, skill, tact, and patience were all brought to 
bear in rearing a large family and preparing them for 
usefulness in life. She was as pious as learned. " If," 
she exclaims in one of her evening meditations, " if 



20 THE MAKCH OF METHODISM. 

comparatively to despise and undervalue all the world 
contains which is esteemed great, fair, or good; if 
earnestly and constantly to desire Thee, thy favor, thy 
acceptance, thyself, rather than any or all things thou 
hast created, be to love thee, I do love thee." (Moore, 
Life of Wesley^ 

6. Three G-reat Leaders. — The Methodist move- 
ment was providentially furnished at its very begin- 
ning with an organizer, a poet, and an orator. John 
Wesley was able to move great masses of people with 
his solemn and earnest preaching, but it was to his 
talent to organize and conserve that the Methodist 
Church owed its form and permanence. Charles Wesley 
added to a talent for preaching the gift of writing sacred 
song, and has bequeathed to the Church a legacy of 
unsurpassed hymnology. Whitefield outranked both as 
an orator, and wherever he went drew together great 
crowds of eager listeners who were charmed by his 
eloquence. These three men stand out conspicuously 
as the great figures in the religious awakening which 
so soon assumed vast proportions. 

7. John Wesley was born at Ep worth on the 17th 
of June, 1703, old style. Two events which occurred in 
his early years seemed to influence him in his after life 
— one, the fire at the rectory; and the other, the strange 
noises which were heard there. The rectory was 
burned when he was in his sixth year. John was prov- 
identially rescued from the blazing building, and he 
was early impressed with the sense of a special mission 
in the world. His mother, too, was impelled to con- 
secrate him specially to Gocl. She writes, "I do in- 
tend to be more particularly careful of the soul of this 



PROVIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT. 21 

child that thou hast so mercifully provided for." When 
ten and a half } r ears old John left home and entered the 
Charter House School at London. He entered as " the 
poor child of an impoverished parish priest, and had to 
endure wrongs and insults neither few nor small." 
When he left he had attained a high reputation for 
scholarship, but it is also said that he had lost the re- 
ligion which had marked his character from the days of 
his infancy. It was while he was at the Charter House 
that there were heard at the rectory those mysterious 
noises wdiich baffled all attempts at discovering their 
origin. Like similar disturbances in later years they 
gave rise to a multitude of theories as to their cause. 
John took great pains to learn the minute particulars 
of these disturbances. " We have little doubt that the 
Epworth noises deepened and most powerfully in- 
creased Wesley's convictions of the existence of an 
unseen world; and in this w T ay exercised an important 
influence on the whole of his future life." (Tyerman.) 
Wesley has been criticised for his credulity in this and 
other matters. Stevens (History of Methodism) says : 
" When it is remembered that Wesley's age was one of 
general skepticism among thinkers, we cannot be sur- 
prised if he revolted, in his great work, to the opposite 
extreme, and the error was certainly on the best side. 
Credulity might injure his work, but skepticism would 
have ruined it, or rather would have rendered it im- 
possible." At the age of sixteen years he was admitted 
to Christ Church College, Oxford. Here, as at the 
Charter House, he maintained a high reputation for 
scholarship. His religion, however, was still only of a 
formal character. It was in 1725 that the thought of 



22 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

taking holy orders was pressed upon him. His father 
counseled delay. His mother writes: "I approve the 
disposition of your mind, and think the sooner you are 
a deacon the better." Soon his father joined with his 
mother in urging him to seek holy orders without de- 
lay. He now began in earnest to seek to lead a new 
life. He read devotional books and sought light on 
many difficult questions. Finally lie was ordained 
deacon by Dr. Potter, Bishop of Oxford, in Septem- 
ber, 1725. In March, 1726, he was elected Fellow of 
Lincoln College, his connection with which lasted for 
more than a quarter of a century. "Sometime Fellow 
of Lincoln College " is the designation by which he de- 
scribes himself in the title-page of his works. His 
father, owing to increasing years, sought a curate to 
aid him in his work at Epworth and Wroote. John 
was urged to accept the position, which he did, and 
from the summer of 1727 to the autumn of 1729 was 
engaged in parochial work, having been ordained priest 
in 1728. Although "he took some pains with this 
people," and his father speaks of " the dear love they 
bore him," yet he does not appear to have been in his 
element. In the autumn of 1729 he was urged to re- 
turn to Lincoln College, which he did, and resumed his 
office of Greek lecturer. On his return he found that 
his brother Charles and a few others had joined together 
for spiritual and intellectual improvement; they soon 
recognized in John a natural leader, and " accordingly, 
in John Wesley's rooms at Lincoln College, which tra- 
dition points out as the first-floor rooms on the south 
or right-hand side of the first quadrangle, shaded by 
the famous Lincoln vine, and opposite the clock tower, 



PROVIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT. 23 

in November, 1729, four young gentlemen of Oxford 
began to spend some evenings together in reading 
chiefly the Greek Testament." (Overton, John Wesley.) 
[For the names of these four, see page 15.] The Holy 
Club continued to receive accessions. Whitefield joined 
them in 1735. Meanwhile, the father, approaching his 
end, had entreated John to become his successor at 
Epworth. The appeal touched the son's heart, but he 
was persistent in the thought that other work de- 
manded his attention. Samuel Wesley died April 25, 
1735. In the autumn of the same year John and 
Charles, together with Ingham and Delamotte, embarked 
for Georgia to go as missionaries to the American 
aborigines. On the same vessel were twenty-six Ger- 
man Moravians, with their bishop, David Netschman. 
From these simple-minded and deeply pious Christians 
the "Wesley s learned many valuable lessons. A perilous 
storm arising, John Wesley observed that the Moravians 
gave no evidence of fear, while the English passengers 
were crying with alarm. He found that he was himself 
a subject of fear, and endeavored to lay the lesson to 
heart. The mission to Georgia was not a success. Rules 
and ceremonies and the rites of the Church were en- 
forced, but saving faith was not taught. John became 
involved in some disputes with the authorities, and 
February, 1738, found him and Charles again in Eng- 
land. He writes bitter things against himself in his 
diary, declaring that " My whole heart is altogether cor- 
rupt and abominable, and consequently my whole life, 
seeing it cannot be that an evil tree should bring forth 
good fruit." " He had reached all other conditions of 
the Christian life; the faith to appropriate to himself 



24: THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

the promises and consolations of the Gospel was still 
lacking. . . . But the light was dawning, and the morn- 
ing was at hand. The Moravians were again to meet 
him in London." (Stevens, History of Methodism.) 

8. Charles Wesley, the eighteenth child and 
youngest son of Samuel and Susannah Wesley, was 
born at Ep worth, December 18, 1707, old style. At 
five years of age he entered his mother's school; at 
eight he was enrolled at Westminster school. In 1721 
he had made such progress in his studies that he was 
admitted as king's scholar of St. Peter's College, West- 
minster. In 1726 he was elected to Christ Church Col- 
lege, Oxford. At the age of twenty-one he became 
tutor in the college. To him was first applied the 
epithet " Methodist " because of the strict and studious 
lives led by himself and associates. In 1735, previ- 
ous to his departure for Georgia, he was ordained 
deacon by Bishop Potter, and priest the next Sabbath 
after by Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London. " He had much 
warmth of affection and tenderness of sympathy; so 
that his friendship was felt to be of inestimable value." 
His views were ascetic. He was a diligent and en- 
thusiastic student of the Bible. His aim was to turn 
men from sin. Of the Methodist movement which was 
now at hand he was to be one of the most zealous 
apostles and the poet-theologian of the great revival. 

9. George Whiterleld.— The early life of White- 
field is full of interest. His father kept the Bell Inn 
in the city of Gloucester, where George was born De- 
cember 16, 1714, old style. When George was two 
years old his father died. "About the tenth year of 
my age," George writes in his autobiography, " it 



PROVIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT. 25 

pleased God to permit my mother to marry a second 
time. It proved what the world would call an unhappy 
match as for temporals, but God overruled it for good." 
At twelve years of age he was placed at school. At 
fifteen, " my mother's circumstances being much on the 
decline, and being tractable that way, I from time to 
time began to assist her occasionally in the public- 
house, till at length I put on my blue apron and my 
snuffers, washed mops, cleaned rooms, and, in a word, 
became professed and common drawer for nigh a year 
and a half." In his eighteenth year, through the inter- 
cession of friends, he was enabled to enter Pembroke 
College, Oxford, as a servitor. Here he spent four 
years, from 1*732 to 1736. These were remarkable 
years in the development of his religious character and 
in the preparation for his life work. In his autobi- 
ography he charges himself with many gross sins, even 
in his early youth. He nevertheless seemed at times 
to have earnest desires for a better life. At college 
there was the same conflict between his lower and bet- 
ter nature. He set about to reform himself by attention 
to external duties. Again he would relapse. He spent 
whole nights upon his bed groaning under the weight of 
his sins. Having noticed and admired the lives of the 
"Methodists" at Christ Church College he found 
means of communicating with Charles Wesley, who, be- 
sides much good advice, gave him a book entitled The 
Life of God in the Soul of Man. This revealed to 
him that "true religion was a union of the soul with 
God, and Christ formed within us;" and he thus learned 
of the necessity of a new birth. Again, however, he 
resorted to external duties as the means of securing the 



26 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

peace of soul he so much desired. At the season of 
Lent, in 1735, he gave himself up to such abstinence and 
painful exercise that he was taken with a fit of sickness 
which lasted about seven weeks. He now records, 
"After having undergone innumerable bufferings of 
Satan, and many months of inexpressible trials by day 
and night under the spirit of bondage, God was pleased 
at length to remove the heavy load, to enable me to lay 
hold on his dear Son by a living faith, and, by giving 
me the spirit of adoption, to seal me, as I humbly hope, 
even to the day of everlasting redemption." This was 
about seven weeks after Easter, and it is the point from 
which he dates his conversion. He now became a lead- 
ing spirit among the "Methodists." It was not until 
three years later that John and Charles Wesley entered 
into the same happy experience. Whitefield was ad- 
mitted to holy orders June 20, 173G, and writes, 
" When the bishop laid his hand upon me I gave my- 
self up to be a martyr for Him who hung upon the cross 
for me." His first sermon gave evidence of the great 
power he was soon to exercise upon great masses of 
people in the preaching of the word. He writes, "As 
I proceeded I perceived the fire kindled, till at last, 
though so young, and amidst a crowd who knew me in 
my childish days, I trust I was enabled to speak with 
some degree of gospel authority." 

The lives of these three great leaders are now merged 
in the movement providentially committed to them, the 
course of which we are to follow. 



LAYING FOUNDATIONS. 27 



III. 

LAYING FOUNDATIONS. 

1. Assurance of Faith. — But little progress toward 
definite results was attained until the three great leaders 
had entered into that religious experience which gave 
them courage to preach boldly the Gospel of Christ as 
"the power of God unto salvation to every one that 
believeth." Whitefield writes of his conversion, which 
occurred in 1735, when he was twenty years of age, "I 
know the place; it may perhaps be superstition, but 
whenever I go to Oxford I cannot help running to the 
spot where Jesus Christ first revealed himself to me 
and gave me the new birth. . . . O what a ray of divine 
life did then break in upon my soul!" Soon after 
his ordination we find him preaching on the necessity 
of the new birth from the text, "If any man be in 
Christ, he is a new creature." The Wesleys returned 
from Georgia in February of 1738, and soon met with 
Peter Bohler, the Moravian, who had been ordained for 
the work of the ministry by Count Zinzendorf. Border's 
teachings convinced them "that true faith in Christ 
was inseparably attended by (1) dominion over sin, and 
(2) constant peace arising from a sense of forgiveness." 
Charles Wesle}^ found this peace of soul on Whitsun- 
day, May 21, 1738. He was entertained during a period 
of sickness at the house of a pious mechanic by the 

name of Bray. Here it was that he was led into the 
3 



28 THE MAKCTI OF METHODISM. 

way of faith. He says, " I felt a violent opposition and 
reluctance to believe; yet still the Spirit of God strove 
with my own and the evil spirit, till, by degrees, he 
chased away the darkness of my unbelief. I now found 
myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of lov- 
ing Christ." John Wesley, after much doubt and mis- 
giving, experienced this great blessing on May 24, and 
writes, " I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did 
trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation, and an assur- 
ance was given me that he had taken away my sins, 
even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and 
death, and I then testified openly to all there what I 
now first felt in my heart." Eighteen days after he 
preached his celebrated sermon from the text, " By 
grace are ye saved through faith," and showed that 
such a faith results in salvation (1) from the guilt of 
all past sin; (2) from servile fear; (3) from the power 
of sin. 

2. Societies Formed. — "Religious Societies" had 
existed for about fifty years in many places throughout 
the kingdom. They met to pray, sing psalms, read 
the Scriptures, and to reprove, exhort, and edify one 
another. With these Societies Whitefield and the Wes- 
leys were accustomed to meet and to read and expound 
the Scriptures. In London, May, 1738, a Moravian 
Society was formed in Fetter Lane under the direction 
of Peter Bohler, to which the Wesleys were attached. 
This was at first a place of great spiritual profit, but 
in 1740 the Methodists were obliged to withdraw by 
reason of false doctrines which had been introduced. 
The origin of the Methodist Societies is thus given by 
Wesley: "In the latter end of the year 1739 eight or 



LAYING FOUNDATIONS. 29 

ten persons came to me in London who appeared to be 
deeply convinced of sin, and earnestly groaning for re- 
demption. ... I appointed a day when they might all 
come together, which, from thenceforward, they did 
every Thursday in the evening. . . . This was the rise 
of the United Society, first in London and then in other 
places." Again he writes: "The first evening about 
twelve persons came; the next, thirty or forty. When 
they were increased to about a hundred I took down 
their names and places of abode, intending as often as 
it was convenient to call upon them at their houses. 
Thus without any previous plan began the Methodist 
Society in England — a company of people associated 
together to help each other to work out their own 
salvation." In February, 1739, Whitefield began out- 
door preaching in Kingswood, Bristol, a mining center 
inhabited by a lawless and brutal class of people. Here 
was started a school, the responsibility for which soon 
rested on John Wesley. Still later Wesley took pos- 
session of a piece of ground in the Horse Fair, Bristol, 
where was erected the first Methodist chapel. In 
November of the same year he preached to five thou- 
sand people at a place called the Foundry, near Moor- 
fields, London. Subsequently ground was purchased 
and a place of worship erected which was the first 
Methodist meeting house in London. It accommodated 
about fifteen hundred people, was without pews, and 
all the benches were alike for rich and poor. The men 
and women sat apart. The band room was behind the 
chapel; here the classes met; here in the winter the 
five o'clock morning service was conducted; and here 
were held, at two o'clock, on Wednesdays and Fridays, 



30 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

weekly meetings for prayer. The north end of the 
room was used for a school, and at the south end was 
the "Book Room" for the sale of Wesley's publica- 
tions. 

3. Peculiar Institutions.— It will be of interest 
now to note some of the peculiar institutions which 
were early adopted by the Methodist Societies, and most 
of which have been retained to the present day. First 
of all should be noted the " General Rules of the United 
Societies" which were first printed in 1743. The 
Society is defined to be " no other than a company of 
men having the form and seeking the power of godli- 
ness, united in order to pray together, to receive the 
word of exhortation, and to watch over one another in 
love, that they may help each other to work out their 
salvation." These rules, prepared for the early Meth- 
odist Societies, continue to be the standard of Methodist 
life and conduct, and are as follows: 

" There is only one condition previously required of 
those who desire admission into these Societies — ' a de- 
sire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved 
from their sins.' But wherever this is really fixed in 
the soul it will be shown by its fruits. 

" It is therefore expected of all who continue therein 
that they shall continue to evidence their desire of 
salvation, 

" First : By doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every 
kind, especially that which is most generally practiced; 
such as, 

" The taking of the name of God in vain. 

" The profaning the day of the Lord, either by doing 
ordinary work therein or by buying or selling. 



LAYING FOUNDATIONS. 31 

" Drunkenness, buying or selling spirituous liquors, 
or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity. 

" Slaveholding; buying or selling slaves. 

"Fighting, quarreling, brawling, brother going to law 
with brother; returning evil for evil, or railing for rail- 
ing ; the using many words in buying or selling. 

"The buying or selling goods that have not paid the 
duty. 

" The giving or taking things on usury — that is, un- 
lawful interest. 

"Uncharitable or unprofitable conversation; partic- 
ularly speaking evil of magistrates or of ministers. 

"Doing to others as we would not they should do 
unto us. 

" Doing what we know is not for the glory of God, as: 

" The putting on of gold and costly apparel. 

" The taking such diversions as cannot be used in the 
name of the Lord Jesus. 

"The singing those songs, or reading those books, 
which do not tend to the knowledge or love of God. 

" Softness and needless self-indulgence. 

" Laying up treasure upon earth. 

"Borrowing without a probability of paying; or tak- 
ing up goods without a probability of paying for them. 

" It is expected of all who continue in these Societies 
that they shall continue to evidence their desire of 
salvation, 

"Second: By doing good; by being in every kind 
merciful after their power; as they have opportunity, 
doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as pos- 
sible, to all men: 

"To their bodies of the ability which God giveth, by 



32 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked, by 
visiting or helping them that are sick or in prison: 

" To their souls, by instructing, reproving, or ex- 
horting all we have any intercourse with; trampling 
under foot that enthusiastic doctrine, that i we are not 
to do good unless our hearts be free to iV 

" By doing good, especially to them that are of the 
household of faith or groaning so to be; employing 
them preferably to others; buying one of another; 
helping each other in business; and so much the more 
because the world will love its own and them only. 

By all possible diligence and frugality, that the Gos- 
pel be not blamed. 

" By running with patience the race which is set be- 
fore them, denying themselves, and taking up their cross 
daily; submitting to bear the reproach of Christ, to be 
as the filth and offscouring of the world; and looking 
that men should say all manner of evil of them falsely, 
for the Lord's sake. 

"It is expected of all who desire to continue in these 
Societies that they shall continue to evidence their 
desire of salvation, 

" Third : By attending upon all the ordinances of 
God; such are, 

" The public worship of God ; 

"The ministry of the word, either read or ex- 
pounded; 

"The Supper of the Lord; 

" Family and private prayer; 

"Searching the Scriptures; 

" Fasting or abstinence. 

"These are the General Rules of our Societies; all 



LAYING FOUNDATIONS. 33 

which we are taught of God to observe, even in his 
written word, which is the only rule, and the sufficient 
rule, both of our faith and practice. And all these we 
know his Spirit writes on truly awakened hearts. If 
there be any among us who observes them not, who 
habitually breaks any of them, let it be known unto 
them who watch over that soul as they who must give 
an account. We will admonish him of the error of his 
ways. We will bear with him for a season. But if 
then he repent not, he hath no more place among us. 
We have delivered our own souls." 

The Societies were divided into Classes and Hands 
The Class consisted at first of about twelve mem- 
bers with a leader, and had in view the double ob- 
ject of receiving the contributions of the members 
and providing for their spiritual instruction. The 
Band (since done away with) consisted of a smaller 
and more select number, having closer and more con- 
fidential relations to each other. 

The Love Feast, which Wesley found among the 
Moravians, was an adaptation of the "Agapae" of 
the primitive Church. "They met," says Wesley, 
" that they might i eat bread ' together as the ancient 
Christians did, 'with gladness and singleness of heart.' 
Our food is only a little plain cake and water, but we 
seldom return from them without being fed, not only 
with the ' meat which perisheth,' but with 'that which 
endureth to everlasting life.' " 

The Watchnight service, established at Bristol in 
1740, was intended to draw away the Kingswood col- 
liers from the scenes of midnight dissipation at the ale 
houses. At first held monthly, it came finally to be 



34 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

held only on the last night of the year. Preaching, 
prayer, and song filled the hours till the new year was 
ushered in. 

Itinerant preachers soon became a necessity. So- 
cieties increased more rapidly than preachers; thence 
arose the " itinerancy." "The pastoral service, which 
would otherwise have been confined to a single parish, 
was extended by this plan to scores of towns and vil- 
lages, and, by the cooperation of the class meeting, was 
rendered almost as efficient as it would have been were 
it local. It contributed, perhaps more than any other 
cause, to maintain a sentiment of unity among the 
members of the Societies. It gave a pilgrim, a militant 
character to its preachers. It made them one of the 
most self-sacrificing, laborious, practical, and successful 
bodies of men which has appeared in the great field of 
modern Christian labor." [Stevens.) 

Lay Preaching was an innovation which both the 
Wesleys at first opposed. The valuable services ren- 
dered by John Cennick, Thomas Maxfield, and other 
lay helpers, coupled with the judicious advice of Susan- 
nah Wesley, finally led John Wesley to the conclusion : 
"It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth to him good." 
The system once adopted, John Wesley would not part 
with it, though frequently importuned to do so. It is 
safe to add that Methodism could never have won its 
great triumph without the aid of lay preachers. 

The Confereyice. This institution, which has be- 
come so permanent a feature in the economy of 
Methodism, had its origin in 1744. John Wesley in- 
vited several clergymen and lay assistants to meet him 
in London, and to give him " their advice respecting the 



LAYING FOUNDATIONS. 35 

best method of carrying on the work of God." In re- 
sponse to this call the first Methodist Conference as- 
sembled at the Foundry, London, on Monday, the 25th 
of June, 1744, and consisted of John and Charles 
Wesley, four other clergymen of the Church of Eng- 
land, and four lay preachers. The Conference lasted 
until Friday. Three topics were discussed: 1. What 
to teach; 2. How to teach; 3. How to regulate doc- 
trine, discipline, and practice. " They little thought 
that they were constructing a platform which would 
survive their times, and originating a long series of An- 
nual Conferences which would become one of the most 
important institutions in the world — a central power, 
conveying benefits to every quarter of the globe, and 
serving as a model for framing other similar institutions 
both at home and abroad. The doctrines agreed upon 
are still the staple doctrines of the Methodist communi- 
ties and the elements of Methodist discipline may be 
found in the minutes of this, the first Methodist Con- 
fer en ce. " ( Tyerman . ) 



36 ' THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 



IV. 

PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 

1. The Mission to the Masses.— Methodism was 
organized for aggressive work. " The world is my* 
parish," was Wesley's motto. From. 1739, which was 
finally accepted as the date of the origin of Methodism, 
and which Wesley inserted as such in the General 
Rules, all its plans and institutions were governed by 
the purpose of waging aggressive warfare on the king- 
dom of Satan. One of the most effective means of 
reaching the masses was open-air preaching. This was 
not only contrary to the rules of the Established Church, 
but was bitterly opposed by many who were otherwise 
friendly to the Methodist movement. As we have al- 
ready seen, Whitefield was the first to engage in this 
work. Finding the churches closed to him, " on Satur- 
day, February 17, 1739, he crossed the Rubicon, and 
virtually led the incipient Methodism across it by the 
extraordinary irregularity of preaching in the open 
air." This occurred at Kings wood, where he repeated 
his labors, and soon his congregations increased to ten 
and even twenty thousand. In June the Archbishop of 
Canterbury forbade the clergy to permit the Wesleys 
to preach in their churches. John Wesley soon fol- 
lowed the example of Whitefield, and began preaching 
to large audiences out of doors. Charles Wesley had 
been appointed curate of St. Mary's, Islington, London, 



PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 37 

but his faithful ministry had speedily procured his dis- 
missal. He likewise joined in the innovation, and 
preached to ten thousand people at Moorfield, London. 
The whole country was stirred; societies increased; 
everywhere there was a cry for the pure word of God; 
bitter persecutions followed; opposition came from 
the clergy of the Established Church, from magistrates, 
and from the mob; the Methodists were stoned, 
beaten, arrested, and not infrequently had to flee for 
their lives. Helpers, however, were not wanting. Many 
came from the lower ranks of society, but not a few 
from the nobility. Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, 
frequented the Moravian Societies in London, and after 
the separation of Wesley from them cooperated with the 
Methodists. She appointed Whitefield her chaplain, 
and encouraged Wesley in the employment of a lay 
ministry. The scenes at these open-air services were 
thrilling. The vilest reprobates were convicted of sin; 
many trembled and agonized in prayer; shouts and 
sobs were heard everywhere in the vast audiences, and 
the power of God was manifest in the conversion of 
multitudes of souls. John Wesley preached from his 
father's tombstone at Epworth to large gatherings of 
the people. " God bowed their hearts," he says, " and 
on every side, as with one accord, they lifted up their 
voices and wept; several dropped down as dead." 

2. America Stirred. — Whitefield had visited 
Georgia in 1738. He returned to America, landing at 
Philadelphia, November, 1739. The people flocked to 
hear his eloquent appeals. He preached in the churches 
and in the open air. Christians of all denominations 
attended his services. He passed on to New York, 



38 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

thence overland to Georgia, preaching on his route 
sometimes to ten thousand people. Coming north again 
he arrived in Newport, September, 1740. His sermons 
on the way to Boston gave him such a reputation that 
he was met "by the governor and a deputation of clergy 
and citizens, who escorted him into the city. Twenty 
thousand people came to hear his farewell discourse on 
the Common. On the 16th of January, 1741, he again 
embarked at Charleston for England. "He had stirred 
the consciences of tens of thousands from Maine to 
Georgia, and doubtless, by these and his subsequent 
travels, did much to prepare the soil for that harvest 
of Methodism which in our day has ( shaken like Leba- 
non ' along all his course." (Stevens.) 

3. The Stream Parted.— Whitefield, during his 
absence in America, had imbibed Calvinistic views. 
Wesley, though strongly Arminian, had not made 
these doctrines a test of membership in the Societies. 
On his return Whitefield began to preach " the decrees." 
John Cennick, employed by Wesley as a teacher at 
Kingswood, followed Whiten* eld's example. The re- 
sult was strife in the Society. The time had come for 
Wesley openly to declare his opinions. He avowed 
himself an Arminian. He preached a powerful sermon 
in Bristol on " free grace." Cennick and his followers 
were declared to be no longer members of the Band 
Society. Whitefield and the Wesleys were estranged. 
Happily, however, through the efforts of Lady Hunt- 
ingdon they were reconciled, and henceforward, though 
they worked in different channels, they still labored 
harmoniously for the common end of saving souls. 
Whitefield attached himself to the service of Lady 



PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 39 

Huntingdon, who contributed large sums in establish- 
ing chapels in various parts of the kingdom, which be- 
came part of " Lady Huntingdon's Connection." She 
presided over the Conferences and stationed the preach- 
ers. " Honor, heroism, and magnanimity were always 
conspicuous in her remarkable career, and for intre- 
pidity in the cause of God and success in winning souls 
to Christ Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, stands un- 
equaled among women." (Tyerman.) Her churches 
are now mostly independent. 

4. In Labors Abundant. — We have already ob- 
served the work of the first Conference in 1744. That 
was a year of great trial. Reports were circulated that 
the Methodists were in collusion with the Scottish Pre- 
tender. Charles Wesley was indicted before the magis- 
trates in Yorkshire for praying God to " call home his 
banished ones," which, it was insisted, meant the House 
of the Stuarts. Mobs raged everywhere, and the Method- 
ists were assailed in their assemblies and homes. Many 
were impressed for the army. Thomas Beard, who had 
suffered much in the regiment, was sent to the hospital 
at Newcastle, where he died, and became the first martyr 
of Methodism. The influence of Methodism had now 
been felt all over England, Scotland, and Wales. Wes- 
ley and his itinerants were continually pressing the 
work into new sections of the country. Even the army 
in Flanders was made the scene of Methodistic labors. 
Places of worship were established in different camps, 
and hundreds of converts died in triumph. The suc- 
cesses Avere great, the sacrifices correspondingly severe; 
homes invaded, property destroyed, lives jeopardized 
— these were some of the penalties paid for adherence to 



40 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

truth and duty. The labors of John and Charles Wesley 
in Ireland brought fruitage to the Church of God in the 
conversion of many notable men, among whom was 
Adam Clarke, who subsequently enriched Christian lit- 
erature with his Commentary on the Sacred Scriptures. 
Here, too, were encountered opposition and persecution, 
especially from the Romanists. Thomas Walsh, who 
in his early life had been a faithful adherent of the 
Catholic Church, was in his eighteenth year converted 
through the instrumentality of Protestant friends, and 
subsequently joined the Methodist Society. Entering 
the ranks of the lay ministry he became a mighty power 
for good among his own people. The Roman priests 
instigated mobs against him. On one occasion it was 
proposed to put him in a well, but his dignified bearing 
won the admiration of the crowd, and he was released. 
In later years Wesley writes : " The scandal of the 
cross has ceased, and all the kingdom, rich and poor, 
papists and Protestants, behave with courtesy, nay, 
good will." " He rejoiced at last over a larger Society 
in Dublin than anywhere else in the United Kingdom, 
except London." " So mightily grew the word of God 
and prevailed." 

5. The "Work Consolidated. — The Conferences 
continued to be held, and soon came to be the unifying 
influence among the Societies. At these sessions the 
great fundamental doctrines of Christian life and prac- 
tice were discussed. Faith, justification, assurance, 
and sanctification were explained and enforced. Wes- 
ley began to issue a " Christian Library," and to write 
and disseminate tracts against drunkenness, Sabbath- 
breaking, and other sins of the times. A bond of sym- 



PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 41 

patliy between the members of the different Societies 
was fostered by a system of quarterly tickets given to 
each member, which furnished an opportunity not only 
for the recognition of the faithful members wherever 
they might be, but enabled those in charge in a quiet 
and inoffensive way to drop the disorderly. Marvelous 
had been the effects of the reformation upon the lives 
of the people. Scoffers were silenced. Blasphemers 
became meek and docile Christians. Whole communi- 
ties were changed from habits of drinking, swearing, 
and fighting to peaceful observance of God's laws and 
reverence of his holy day. But not only were their 
lives changed; they learned to die in triumph. One 
says, "My body is indeed weak and in pain, but my 
soul is all joy and praise." The last words of another 
were, " Death stares me in the face, but I fear him not." 
Hannah Richardson, who was followed to her grave by 
the whole of the Bristol Society, the procession being 
pelted in the streets with dirt and stones, said: "I have 
no fear, no doubt, no trouble, heaven is open! I see 
Jesus Christ with all his angels and saints in white. I 
see what I cannot utter or express." Commenting on 
the seventh Conference, which was held March 8, 
1750, Stevens (History of Methodism) says: " A little 
more than ten years had passed since the recognized 
epoch of Methodism. The results thus far were cer- 
tainly remarkable. A scarcely paralleled religious in- 
terest had been spread and sustained throughout the 
United Kingdom and along the Atlantic coast of 
America. The Churches of both countries had been ex- 
tensively reawakened. The great fact of a lay ministry 
had been accomplished. It had presented before the 



42 



THE • MARCH OF METHODISM. 



world the greatest pulpit orator of the age, if not of 
any age; also one of the greatest religious legislators of 
history, a hymnist whose supremacy had been but 
doubtfully disputed by a single rival, and the most 
signal example of female agency in religious affairs 
which Christian history records. The lowest abysses 
of the English population among colliers and miners 
had been reached by the Gospel. Calvinistic Method- 
ism was restoring the decayed nonconformity of Eng- 
land. Wesley an Methodism, though adhering to the 
Establishment, had taken an organic and permanent 
form; it had its Annual Conferences, Quarterly Con- 
ferences, class meetings, and band meetings; its watch- 
night and love feasts; its traveling preachers, local 
preachers, exhorters, leaders, trustees, and stewards. 
It had districted England, Wales, and Ireland into cir- 
cuits for systematic ministerial labors. Its chapels and 
preachers' houses or parsonages were multiplying over 
the country. It had a rich psalmody and a well-defined 
theology, which transcended the prevalent creed in both 
spirituality and liberality. It had begun its present 
scheme of popular religious literature, had provided the 
first of a series of academic institutions, and was con- 
templating a plan of ministerial education which has 
been effectively accomplished." 

6. Important Conferences. — The Conference of 
1767 was the first at which a complete list of the cir- 
cuits and membership was given. There are recorded 
41 circuits and 25,911 members. This enumera- 
tion included England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. 
In this year, on Saturday, August 8, at Newcastle, 
Wesley took the first missionary collection. This was 



PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 43 

to aid the Indian schools in America. In the same 
year the first Methodist place of worship in America 
was opened in the sail loft in New York. Alluding to 
the Conference of this year Wesley says, "Love and 
harmony reigned from the beginning to the end."' 
Among those present were Whiten* eld, the leader of the 
Countess of Huntingdon's Connection, and Howell 
Harris, chief of the Calvinistic Methodists in Wales. 
A scheme was proposed by Wesley to raise money 
to free the chapels, now numbering about one hundred, 
from an aggregate debt of about £11,000. Wesley 
concludes his Minutes of this Conference with this 
injunction : " Let us all be men of one business. We 
live only for this, to save our own souls and them that 
hear us." Very soon, however, the harmony which 
prevailed at this Conference was to be disturbed by the 
renewal of doctrinal controversy. In order to prevent 
alienation between the Calvinistic and Arminian wings 
of the Methodist Societies efforts had been made to 
avoid the discussion of the questions on which they 
differed. Wesley now became convinced that he had 
conceded too much to the Calvinistic views. As early 
as 1744 a minute had been made declaring, "We have 
leaned too much toward Calvinism." The Conference 
of 1770 reiterated this statement in a minute defending 
the Arminian view of good works. On the publication 
of this minute a most intense and bitter discussion en- 
sued, which lasted for six years. It was in this crisis, 
when the pens of good but misguided men Were heap- 
ing abuse upon the Wesleys, that John Fletcher, of 
Madeley, produced his celebrated Checks to Antino- 
mianism, which discussed the great questions of the 



44 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

freedom of the will, prescience, and fatalism, and of 
which Stevens {History of Methodism) declares, "It 
may be probably affirmed that no man, previously un- 
determined in his opinions on the Calvinistic contro- 
versy, can read them through without closing them an 
Arminian." The year 1784 was made memorable by 
timely provision for the preservation of the Societies, 
both in England and America, and has been called "the 
grand climacteric year of Methodism." John Wesley 
was now in his eighty-first year. During eighteen days 
of the preceding year his life had been despaired of. 
June 28, 1784, he writes: "To-day I entered on my 
eighty-second year, and found myself just as strong to 
labor, and as fit for any exercise of body or mind, as I 
was forty years ago. We can only say, * The Lord 
reigneth ! ' While we live let us live to him." He had 
relaxed nothing of his usual habits of traveling, preach- 
ing, and writing. He complained bitterly because in 
some places the five o'clock morning preaching had 
been given up. He declares they have "lost their first 
love," and says, " Let all the preachers, that are still 
alive to God, join together as one man, fast and pray, 
lift up their voice as a trumpet, be instant, in season, 
out of season, to convince them that are fallen; and ex- 
hort them instantly to repent and do the first works; 
this in particular — rising in the morning, without which 
neither their souls nor their bodies can long remain in 
health." We find that Sunday schools had been estab- 
lished in some of the Societies, and Wesley writes, 
" Who knows but some of these schools may become 
nurseries for Christians?" It is claimed that Miss 
Cooke, a Methodist young lady, was the first to suggest 



PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 45 

to Robert Raikes the idea of instituting a Sunday 
school in Gloucester, which he commenced about 
1783. Wesley's increasing years, and the fears which 
had been entertained in regard to his health, led 
many of his ministers to desire and urge upon him 
some better provision for securing the property to 
the Societies. There were now reported in the United 
Kingdom three hundred and fifty-nine chapels, which 
had nearly all been deeded in trust for the sole 
use of such persons as might be appointed at the 
yearly " Conference of the people called Methodists." 
It was the term " Conference " which presented the 
difficulty. To prevent misunderstanding and secure 
beyond doubt the use of the properties to the Confer- 
ence appointees, on February 28, 1784, Mr. Wesley 
executed a " deed of declaration " explaining the term 
" Conference of the people called Methodists," and de- 
termining how the succession and identity thereof 
is to be continued. This deed, which was enrolled 
in the High Court of Chancery, is recognized in 
the trust deeds of all the chapels of the Wesleyan 
Church, and hence invests a hundred Methodist preach- 
ers with the power of determining who shall be the 
officiating ministers in all the chapels of the denomi- 
nation. In this deed Wesley named the hundred 
preachers who were declared to constitute the legal 
Conference, with power to perpetuate their number 
forever. As there were one hundred and ninety-two 
preachers who were recognized as in connection with 
the Conference, many of those who were omitted from 
the legal one hundred were much dissatisfied. The 
Conference of 1784 assembled at Leeds on July 27, 



46 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

and the whole subject was warmly discussed. Wise 
counsels finally prevailed. A few disaffected preachers 
withdrew, but Wesley writes, " Our Conference con- 
cluded in much love, to the great disappointment of 
all." English Methodism was now placed on a firm 
basis. In this same year the needs of American Meth- 
odism were also met. Societies had rapidly increased, 
but they were without the sacraments. Appeals were 
made to Wesley to send over ordained men to baptize, 
and administer the communion. This we shall see later 
on that he did. Thus was laid the foundation of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. Writing to the brethren 
in America in defense of his course Wesley says: "If 
anyone will point out a more rational and scriptural 
way of feeding and guiding these poor sheep in the 
wilderness I will gladly embrace it. At present I 
cannot see any better method than that I have taken." 
The Conference of 1790 was the last that Wesley at- 
tended. Marvelous had been the increase in the work- 
ing force of Methodism, and wonderful the change which 
had been wrought in the minds of the people toward its 
leaders. In the United Kingdom there were now 115 cir- 
cuits and 294 itinerant preachers, with 71,568 members 
of the Society. Including the various fields which had 
been occupied in America, Nova Scotia, West Indies, 
and elsewhere, there was an aggregate of 240 circuits, 
541 itinerant preachers, and a membership of 134,549. 
Wesley, now in his eighty-seventh year, makes this 
entry in his Journal, January 1: "I am now an old 
man, decayed from head to foot; my eyes are dim; my 
right hand shakes much. However, blessed be God, I 
do not slack my labor; I can preach and write still." 



PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 47 

In proof of his indefatigable labors, he starts from 
London in February for a journey to the north. Every- 
where he preaches to crowded houses. He visits the 
sick, meets the classes, and on Sundays frequently 
preaches three times. In March he prepares an itiner- 
ary reaching to May. On June 28 he writes: "This 
day I enter into my eighty-eighth year. For above 
eighty-six years I found none of the infirmities of old 
age; my eyes did not wax dim, neither was my natural 
strength abated; but, last August, I found almost a 
sudden change. My eyes were so dim that no glasses 
would help me. My strength likewise now quite for- 
sook me, and probably will not return in this world. 
But I feel no pain from head to foot; only it seems 
nature is exhausted, and, humanly speaking, will sink 
more, till 'the weary springs of life stand still at last.'" 
The forty-seventh Conference began its session on the 
27th of July, at Bristol. Its transactions were not im- 
portant, but at its close Wesley took his last leave of 
his assembled preachers. One who was present says: 
"He appeared very feeble; his eyesight had failed so 
much that he could not see to give out the hymns; yet 
his voice was strong, his spirit remarkably lively, and 
the powers of his mind, and his love toward his fellow- 
creatures, were as bright and as ardent as ever. Seldom 
in history has an individual life been more complete in 
its results than was that of Wesley at this moment. 
His power could now, in any necessity, reach almost 
any part of the three kingdoms by the systematic appa- 
ratus of Methodism. His orders given to his ' assistants ' 
who were dispersed through the land could be con- 
veyed by them to his three hundred preachers, who were 



48 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

continually hastening, like couriers, over the long cir- 
cuits; by these they could be impressed on about twelve 
hundred local preachers, who, Avith the itinerants, could 
convey them to about four thousand stewards and class 
leaders, and these, by the private, but established, means 
of the Societies, could bring them directly to the more 
than seventy thousand members." (Stevens.) 



FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH. 49 



V. 

FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH. 

1. Susannah Wesley. — "The mother of the Wes- 
ley s was the mother of Method ism." (Southey.) Sum- 
ming up the character of this noble woman, Adam 
Clarke says: "As a wife she was affectionate and obe- 
dient, having a sacred respect for authority wherever 
lodged. As a mistress of a large family her manage- 
ment was exquisite in all its parts, and its success be- 
yond comparison or former example. As a Christian 
she was modest, humble, and pious. Her religion was 
as rational as it was scriptural and profound. In form- 
ing her creed she dug deep and laid her foundation 
upon a rock; and the storms and adversities of life 
never shook it. Her faith carried her through life, and 
it was unimpaired in death." Such a life was fitly 
ended with a calm and peaceful death. She entered 
into rest Friday, July 23, 1742. John Wesley records: 
" A little before she lost her speech she made her last 
request: e Children, as soon as I am released sing a 
psalm of praise to God.' From three to four the silver 
cord was loosing and the wheel breaking at the cistern ; 
and then without any struggle, or sigh, or groan, the 
soul was set at liberty." Her tombstone has this verse: 

"In sure and certain hope to rise, 
And claim her mansion in the skies, 
A Christian here her flesh laid down, 
The cross exchanging for a crown." 



50 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

2. George Whitefield. — The labors of this flaming 
evangelist were ended Sabbath morning, September 
30, 1770. He had made his seventh voyage to America. 
From September 17 to 20 he preached daily in Bos- 
ton. Though suffering with asthma and much distressed 
he proceeded to Exeter, N. H, where, on the 29th, he 
delivered a discourse for two hours in the open air. 
He then set off for Newburyport, where he arrived 
in the evening. He hastened to retire. The people 
were anxious to have his words of benediction. Taking 
a candle he paused on the stairs to address them, and 
spoke till the candle burned out in the socket. About 
two o'clock he awoke oppressed with the asthma. He 
sat in his bed some time, praying that God would bless 
his preaching, his Bethesda school, the Tabernacle con- 
gregation, and all connections on the other side of the 
water. He began panting for breath. A physician 
was called, but gave no relief. At six o'clock he " fetched 
one gasp, stretched out his feet, and breathed no more." 
Sketching his life and character, John Wesley notes 
his activity, tender friendship, frankness, courage, and 
intrepidity, combined with steadiness in whatever work 
he undertook. He concludes: "Have we read or heard 
of any person since the apostles who testified the grace 
of God through so widely extended a space, through 
so large a part of the habitable world ? Have we read 
or heard of any person who called so many thousands, 
so many myriad of sinners to repentance ? Above all, 
have we heard or read of any who has been a blessed 
instrument in the hand of God of bringing so many sin- 
ners from darknpss to light and from the power of 
Satan unto God ? " Whitefield was interred at New- 



FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH. 51 

buryport, October 2. All the bells were tolled. Many 
thousands attended the funeral." After the services 
the immense crowd departed weeping through the 
streets, as in mournful groups they wended their way to 
their respective homes. 

3. Charles "Wesley. — It was permitted to this 
eminent servant of God to reach his eightieth year. In 
the early part of his life his labors had been no less 
abundant than those of his brother. Accustomed to 
facing mobs and enduring their cruel attacks, he not 
infrequently held his ground " till his clothes were torn 
to tatters, and the blood ran down his face in streams." 
After 1756 he ceased the active itinerant life and con- 
fined his labors chiefly to London and Bristol. In 1780 
he attended at Bristol his last Conference. He passed 
to his reward March 29, 1788. Just before his death 
he called his wife to his bedside and dictated his last 
poetical utterance : 

"In age and feebleness extreme, 
Who shall a sinful worm redeem ? 
Jesus, my only hope thou art, 
Strength of my failing flesh and heart : 
could I catch a smile from thee, 
And drop into eternity ! " 

4. John Fletcher. — We have noticed the valuable 
service rendered by this holy man of God in connection 
with the Calvinistic controversy. A brief reference, 
however, should be made to his life and death. " In 
his life the primitive excellence of apostolical Christian- 
ity was emulated and illustrated ; and if any man since 
the apostolic time has deserved the title of saint it is 
Fletcher." Born in Switzerland in 1729, he subse- 



52 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

quently removed to England. He joined the " Method- 
ists" about 1755, and in 1757 took orders in the Church 
of England. He declined the living of Dunham because 
there was " too much money and too little labor," and 
accepted Madeley with half the income because it pre- 
sented a better field of usefulness. Here for twenty- 
five years he gave his whole being to the promotion of 
the glory of God and the welfare of his fellow-men. 
He denied himself that he might feed the hungry, clothe 
the naked, and shelter the homeless. He married in 
1781 a lady who survived him many years, and whose 
name is endeared to the hearts of all lovers of the di- 
vine Master whom she devotedly served. In 1773 John 
Wesley writes to Fletcher expressing his fears that in 
the event of his (Wesley's) death the work might come 
to an end. He gives his views as to the qualifications 
necessary for his successor, and says, "Thou art the 
man." " Come while I am alive and capable of labor." 
To this appeal Fletcher pleaded his love of retirement 
and that he needed "a fuller persuasion that the time is 
quite come." God had willed, however, that he should 
not live to be Wesley's successor. In the early part of 
August, 1785, he was taken with a severe cold. On 
Sunday, August 7, he preached his last sermon and then 
hurried away to bed, where he immediately fainted. 
One week from that day his wife records: "On Sun- 
day night, August 14, his precious soul entered into the 
joy of his Lord, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. I 
was scarce a minute at a time from him, night or day, 
during his illness, and I can truly say: 

"No cloud did arise to darken the skies, 

Or hide for one moment his Lord from his eyes." 



FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH. 53 

5. Mary Fletcher. — The wife of John Fletcher sur- 
vived him about thirty years, emulating his example in 
all good words and deeds. " Her home at Madeley was 
a sanctuary to the poor, to devout women, and to the 
itinerant evangelists." On the 9th of December, 1814, 
being then in her seventy-sixth year, she quietly passed 
away. "I am drawing near to glory." "He lifts his 
hands and shows that I am graven there." "The Lord 
bless both thee and me," she said to a Christian friend, 
and died. 

6. Selina, Countess of Huntingdon. — This dis- 
tinguished lady ended her labors at eighty-four years 
of age, June 17, 1791. She had bestowed a half mil- 
lion of dollars on her chapels, schools, and other benevo- 
lent work. " She closed the most remarkable career 
which is recorded of her sex in the modern Church by 
a death which was crowned with the serenity and hope 
that befitted a life so devout and beneficent." Almost 
her last words were, "My work is done; I have noth- 
ing to do but to go to my Father." 

7. John "Wesley. — We have followed Wesley up 
to the forty-seventh Conference in 1790. The last ser- 
mons published were especially directed against laying 
up riches in this world. He says: " Of the three rules 
which are laid down on this head, in the sermon on the 
( Mammon of Unrighteousness,' you may find many that 
observe the first rule, namely, Gain all you can. You 
may find a few that observe the second, Save all you 
can. But how many have you found that observe the 
third rule, Give all you can? O that God would en- 
able me once more, before I go hence and am no more 
seen, to lift up my voice like a trumpet to those who 



54 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

gain and save all they can, but do not give all they can ! " 
In February of 1791 we find him writing of plans for 
future journeys. Wednesday, February 23, he arose at 
4 a. m. and set out to Leatherhead, eighteen miles from 
London, where he preached his last sermon. On Febru- 
ary 24 he wrote his last letter to Wilberforce, who had 
brought to Parliament the question of the abolition of 
slavery, in which occurs that famous sentence: "Go on, 
in the name of God, and in the power of his might, till 
even American slavery, the vilest that ever saw the sun, 
shall vanish away before it." He was now gradually 
becoming weaker. Monday, February 28, his friends be- 
came anxious and alarmed. Joseph Bradford dispatched 
notes to the preachers, saying, "Mr. Wesley is very ill; 
pray! pray! pray! " Tuesday, March 1, after a restless 
night, he began singing, 

'All glory to God in the sky, 
And peace upon earth be restored." 

Again he breaks out: 

" I'll praise my Maker while I've breath, 
And when my voice is lost in death, 

Praise shall employ my nobler powers ; 
My days of praise shall ne'er be past, 
"While life, and thought, and being last, 

Or immortality endures." 

He gave directions for his burial, bade farewell to each 
one present, and then after another pause, and while 
lifting his arm in grateful triumph, he emphatically re- 
iterated, "The best of all is, God is with us." The 
end came at 10 o'clock a. m., Wednesday, March 2, 
1791. Eleven persons altogether were present. " Fare- 



FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH. 55 

well ! " said Wesley, and without a struggle or sigh was 
gone. His friends, standing about his corpse, sang: 

""Waiting to receive thy spirit, 

Lo ! the Saviour stands above ; 
Shows the purchase of his merit, 

Reaches out the crown of love." 

Thus ended a life of toil seldom if ever equaled. It is 
estimated that during the fifty years of his itinerant 
ministry he traveled a quarter of a million of miles and 
preached more than forty thousand sermons. His liter- 
ary labors are not less remarkable. "A catalogue of 
his publications, printed about 1756, contains no less 
than one hundred and eighty-one articles in prose and 
verse, English and Latin, on grammar, logic, medi- 
cine, music, poetry, theology, and philosophy. Two 
thirds of these publications were for sale at less than 
one shilling each, and more than one fourth at a penny. 
They were thus brought within reach of the poorest 
of his people." Summing up his character, Stevens 
(History of Methodism) says: " There can be little hesi- 
tancy in placing John Wesley in the first rank of those 
historical men whose greatness in the legislature, the 
cabinet, the field, philanthropy, or any sphere of 
active life is attributable to their practical sagacity, 
energy, and success. In these three respects what man 
in history transcends him ? " Tyerman (Life of Wesley) 
says: "Taking him altogether, Wesley is a man sui 
generis. He stands alone; he has had no successor; no 
one like him went before; no contemporary was a co- 
equal. There was a wholeness about the man such as 
is rarely seen. His physique, his genius, his wit, his 



56 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

penetration, bis judgment, his memory, his beneficence, 
his religion, his diligence, his conversation, his courte- 
ousness, his manners, and his dress made him as perfect 
as we ever expect man to be on this side heaven." 
Lord Macaulay pays this tribute: "He was a man 
whose eloquence and logical acuteness might have ren- 
dered him eminent in literature; whose genius for gov- 
ernment was not inferior to that of Richelieu; and who 
devoted all his powers, in defiance of obloquy and de- 
rision, to what he sincerely considered the highest good 
of his species." 



NEW MEN AND NEW MEASURES. 57 



VI. 

NEW MEN AND NEW MEASURES. 

1. The Transition Period. — The period of Wes- 
ley's death was one which in itself was calculated to 
fill the minds of many with anxious fears for the stabil- 
ity of Methodism. America had passed through and 
France was in the midst of the throes of revolution. 
Everywhere the people were in commotion. Infidelity 
was rife. Religious and political pamphlets were dis- 
tributed broadcast. The Methodist Societies were 
not without elements of discord. The relation to the 
national Church, the demand for the sacraments, the 
struggle for larger powers on the part of the laity were 
questions not only commanding attention, but causing 
division of sentiment and engendering strife. At the 
forty-eighth Conference, held at Manchester in July, 
1791, a letter was read which Wesley had left with 
Joseph Bradford as his last words to the legal Confer- 
ence of one hundred which he had provided for. He 
said: "I beseech you by the mercies of God that you 
never avail yourselves of the Deed of Declaration to 
assume any superiority over your brethren; but let all 
things go on among those itinerants who choose to re- 
main together exactly in the same manner as when I 
was with you, so far as circumstances will permit. . . . 
Go on thus, doing all things without prejudice or par- 
tiality, and God will be with you even to the end." 



58 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

The Conference pledged itself to follow strictly the 
plan left by Wesley. This pledge, however, was too 
vague to secure harmony of sentiment or action. In 
1795 a "Plan of Pacification" was adopted which had 
a tranquillizing effect. After some further discussion, 
resulting in the formation of the " Methodist New Con- 
nexion," in 1797 there was a further adjustment of the 
Plan of Pacification, and the polity of the connection 
was established and harmony restored. The authority 
of the Conference was recognized, provision was made 
for the administration of the sacraments, while satis- 
factory concessions were made to the Societies. 

The heroic period of Methodism demanded and pro- 
duced men and women not only of pure and self-sacri- 
ficing lives, but of eminent talents and commanding 
influence. 

2. Adam Clarke, who entered the ministry in 1782, 
continued his labors almost without interruption up to 
1815. Crowds attended his preaching. Amid incessant 
labors he found time to give to the Church his monu- 
mental work, the Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, 
which engaged his attention for nearly forty years. 

3. Richard "Watson, ordained in 1800, was zeal- 
ous in labors for the missionary cause. He took espe- 
cial interest in the missions to the slaves in the West 
Indies. He was distinguished as an author, producing, 
among other works, a Life of Wesley and Theological 
Institutes, which is still a standard text-book. 

4. Jabez Bunting, born in 1779, was licensed to 
preach at nineteen years of age. For eighteen years he 
was one of the secretaries of the Wesleyan Missionary 
Society; was four times president of the Conference; 



NEW MEN AND NEW MEASURES. 59 

and was president of the Wesleyan Theological Insti- 
tution from its foundation in 1834 until his death. His 
organizing and administrative talents were wisely em- 
ployed in giving form to Methodism. 

The roll-call of worthies would not be complete with- 
out reference to a host of men and women in humbler 
spheres whose lives adorned and whose labors promoted 
the cause of Christ among the people called Methodists. 

5. Samuel Hick, the "Village Blacksmith," con- 
verted in early life, became a zealous defender of the 
Methodists, and subsequently was licensed as a local 
preacher. " For nearly half a century crowds flocked 
to his artless but powerful ministrations." 

6. William Carvosso, born in 1750, in Cornwall, 
was in early life "borne down by the prevailing sins of 
the age, cock-fighting, wrestling, card-playing, and 
Sabbath-breaking." Converted through the instru- 
mentality of Methodist preaching, he gave himself up 
unreservedly to the service of God. All Cornwall felt 
his influence. He had charge of three classes ; he went 
about from circuit to circuit, aiding in revivals and 
establishing churches. He died in his eighty-fifth year, 
singing with his expiring breath, " Praise God, from 
whom all blessings flow." 

A host of pious women might be mentioned who were 
abundant in self-sacrificing labors. 

7. Ann Cutler consecrated herself to a single life, in 
order that she might be more useful in works of mercy 
and devotion. She was most eflective in prayer, melting 
with her fervent pleading the most hardened audiences. 

8. Dinah. Evans, made familiar by George Eliot's 
story of Adam Bede, is described as " one of the most 



60 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

pure-minded and holy women that ever adorned the 
Church of Christ on earth." She visited prisons, alms- 
houses, and vile dens of infamy to carry the glad tid- 
ings of the Gospel to the inmates. She preached to 
thousands during her life, and it is said that " sermons 
were heard from her deathbed more eloquent than ever 
fell from her lips on Royston Green." 

The holy lives and faithful labors of these devoted 
men and women produced fruitage in the conversion of 
many thousands. The opening of the nineteenth cen- 
tury found the Societies in the midst of revivals at home 
and pushing forward with missionary zeal the work in 
other lands. Let us look at the results in the New 
World. 



TRIUMPHS IN THE NEW WORLD. 61 



VII. 

TRIUMPHS IN THE NEW WORLD. 

1. The Beginnings. — The visits of Whitefield to 
America had given new life to religious zeal, which had 
perceptibly waned after the great awakening under 
Jonathan Edwards. Doubtless there were many among 
the immigrants from England and Ireland who had 
been converted under Methodist preaching. We are 
to wait, however, for the year 1766 for seed to germi- 
nate which had been sown in the Old World. The de- 
vastation of the Palatinate on the Rhine under Louis 
XIV, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, 
drove thousands of Protestants to the English lines. 
Many came to America. About fifty families settled 
in the County of Limerick, Ireland. Methodism found 
them there, and many were converted. In the spring 
of 1760 a scene of much interest is described. A group 
of emigrants is about to embark for America. Many 
are there to witness the departure. Among those who 
are to leave for the New World is a Methodist local 
preacher and class leader, who speaks words of comfort 
and cheer from the side of the vessel. This was Philip 
Embury. On the same ship came Barbara Heck. These 
two were destined in the most remarkable way to be 
the pioneers of Methodism in America. Six years must 
pass before the work begins. Embury perhaps made 
some effort to conduct worship, but did not succeed. 



62 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

It was Barbara Heck who aroused him again to duty. 
Finding a company at their usual occupation of card- 
playing, she hastily seized the cards and, throwing them 
into the fire, rebuked the party; then going to Embury's 
house she said to him, with earnestness, " Philip, you 
must preach to us, or we shall all go to hell " " She, 
it seems, agreed to get the congregation, and, as nearly 
as can be ascertained, in October, 1766, he preached 
the first sermon in his house in what was then called 
Barracks Street, afterward Augustus Street, now City 
Hall Place." (Rev. S. A. Seaman, Annals of New 
York Methodising Larger accommodations were soon 
needed, and a large upper room was hired in the same 
street, about ten doors from the barracks. Numbers 
and interest continued to increase. Thomas Webb, a 
local preacher, who was a retired British officer, and 
now barrack-master at Albany, hearing of Embury's 
work, visited the Society and attracted many by his 
eloquent preaching. Early in 1767 the Society removed 
to the " Rigging Loft." This was, in what is now 
William Street, between John and Fulton. It was 
sixty feet long by eighteen feet wide, and furnished 
with desk and benches. In 1768 we find them buying 
ground for a church building. The names of the 
donors are still preserved. It was situated on what 
is now John Street, between William and Nassau. 
Philip Embury, who had labored on it himself as a car- 
penter, preached the first sermon in it on October 30, 
1768. The preaching of Embury and Webb drew 
together large numbers of eager listeners, and we find 
Boardman, whom Wesley had sent over with Pilmoor 
from the Conference of 1769, writing: " About a third 



TRIUMPHS IN THE NEW WORLD. 63 

part of those who attend get in, the rest are glad to hear 
without. There appears such a willingness in the Ameri- 
cans to hear the word as I never saw before." The 
church was said to accommodate about seven hundred. 
About this same period a beginning had been made in 
Frederick County, Md., by Robert Strawbridge, who 
had come over from Ireland. He preached in his 
own house and subsequently built a log meeting house. 

u It was a rude structure, twenty-two feet square, and 
though long occupied was never finished, but remained 
without windows, door, or floor. The logs were sawed 
on one side for a doorway, and holes were made on the 
other three sides for windows." This little Society, 
consisting at first of about fifteen persons, exerted a 
great influence for good. Strawbridge itinerated in 
several States and founded many Societies. He was 
very poor, and his family often suffered, but he labored 
on in faith. Under the labors of Strawbridge, Richard 
Owen was converted and became the first native Method- 
ist local preacher. Though very poor he too traveled 
extensively and prepared the way for other laborers. 
William Watters, the first native itinerant, labored for 
many years with great zeal. Thus did the seed sown 
by Wesley and his itinerants in the Old World begin to 
produce its fruit in the New World, as, overcoming all 
obstacles, the Methodists pushed their conquests in 
every direction. 

2. Calls for Help. — In the Minutes of the Confer- 
ence held at Leeds in 1769 Mr. Wesley said: "We 
have a pressing call from our brethren of New York to 
come over and help them. Who is willing to go ? " 
Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor responded. 



64 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

They arrived in Philadelphia in October, and were re- 
ceived by Captain Webb. Robert Williams, a local 
preacher, also came over at about the same time, but 
died after very successful labors in 1775. He is said 
to have been the first itinerant preacher in America 
who published a book. The appointments for America 
first appear in the English Minutes for 1770, with the 
names of Joseph Pilmoor, Richard Boardman, Robert 
Williams, and John King. St. George's Church, Phila- 
delphia, was conveyed to the Methodist Society in 1770, 
having originally been built as a German Reformed 
Church. In this church Pilmoor was preaching when 
there arrived from England and listened to his preach- 
ing one who was destined to be the chief shepherd of the 
flock for many years. In response to a further call at 
the Conference of 1771 Francis Asbury had embarked 
for America. He was then twenty-six years of age. 
He had been converted at fourteen, and gave his spare 
time to theological studies. At seventeen he began to 
hold public meetings, and at eighteen to preach, and 
was about twenty-one when he started out as an itiner- 
ant. His labors in America began soon after his ar- 
rival. His fervent zeal and effective preaching soon 
gave him prominence among his brethren. Reaching 
New York he began to push out into the surrounding 
country. Boardman and Pilmoor had confined their 
labors largely to Philadelphia and New York. Under 
the influence of Asbury the work began to extend. In 
1772 he received his appointment from Wesley as su- 
perintendent of the American Societies. Going south- 
ward he preached almost daily and found the cause 
everywhere spreading. In 1773 he was at Baltimore. 



TRIUMPHS IN THE NEW WORLD. 65 

" The first Methodist chapel in Baltimore, of that Straw- 
berry Alley, was on Fell's Point, where the hospitable 
Irishman, Captain Patten, had been the first citizen to 
open his house for the preaching of Asbury, thereby 
adding another instance to the extraordinary services 
of his countrymen in the early history of the denomi- 
nation. It was built of brick, forty-one feet and six 
inches in length and thirty feet in width, with a founda- 
tion of twenty inches. It was built mainly through the 
untiring efforts of Asbury, who laid the foundation 
stone, and was the first to offer the Gospel to the peo- 
ple from its pulpit." (Stevens.) Captain Webb visited 
England in 1772 and pleaded for more helpers for Amer- 
ica. George Shadford and Thomas Rankin were sent. 
Rankin, being Asbury's senior in the itinerancy and a 
man of executive force, was appointed as superintendent 
and was cordially received as such by Asbury. The first 
American Methodist Conference began its session in 
Philadelphia on Wednesday the 14th and closed on Fri- 
day the 16th of July, 1773. Its members were Thomas 
Rankin, Richard Boardman, Joseph Pilmoor, Francis 
Asbury, Richard Wright, George Shadford, Thomas 
Webb, John King, Abraham Whit worth, and Joseph 
Yearby, ten in all, being the same number as at Wes- 
ley's first Conference in England. The membership 
reported was 1,160, of which 180 were in New York, 
180 in Philadelphia, 200 in New Jersey, 500 in Mary- 
land, and 100 in Virginia. Besides these there were 
many not enrolled in the classes who considered them- 
selves members of the Societies. A tendency to settle 
down in the cities was observed, and Rankin and As- 
bury insisted on an adherence to the itinerant plan. It 



66 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

was agreed to recognize the authority of Mr. Wesley, 
and to be governed by the doctrine and discipline of 
the Methodists, as contained in the Minutes. It was 
further decided that the preachers were to avoid ad- 
ministering the sacraments, an exception being made 
in the case of Strawbridge, who was permitted to ad- 
minister the ordinances under the particular direction 
of the assistant. The Conference of 1774 showed an 
increase in membership of 913. There were now 10 
circuits, 17 preachers, and 2,073 members. 

3. A Period of Perplexity. — The troubles be- 
tween the colonies and the mother country were now 
assuming such form as made it necessary for the people 
to range themselves on one side or the other. The Rev- 
olution was impending. Under the strain most of the 
preachers who had come over from England returned 
to the mother country. Rankin left in 1778. Shad- 
ford, who was the last to leave, sought an interview 
with Asbury and asked what conclusion he had reached. 
"I do not see my way clear to go to England," re- 
sponded Asbury. "My work is here done; I cannot 
stay," said Shadford. Thus they parted, and Asbury 
was left alone to superintend the work. Meanwhile 
the work was progressing, though amid great difficulties. 
The names of Philip Gatch, Benjamin Abbott, Freeborn 
Garrettson, and Jesse Lee now begin to appear in the 
annals of Methodism, and all to be famous as ardent 
evangelists of the Gospel. A great revival broke out 
in Virginia. Thousands were moved by the Spirit of 
God, and many were added to the Societies. Persecu- 
tions were frequent. The Methodist preachers were 
suspected of being loyalists. Asbury, notwithstanding 



TRIUMPHS IN THE NEW WORLD. 67 

his lot had been cast with the colonists, was obliged tem- 
porarily to desist from preaching. Hartley, an itinerant, 
being imprisoned, preached through the window of his 
jail. Garrettson was attacked on the highway and struck 
to the ground with a bludgeon. Gatch was tarred and 
came near losing his life. During the war period the la- 
bors of Benjamin Abbott were followed by wonderful 
results. He was a man of great simplicity, deep piety, 
and of magnetic influence. Everywhere the people were 
moved not alone to tears, but to repentance. Physical 
effects frequently followed his preaching. Scores fell 
like dead men to the earth. " He was generally ad- 
dressed as 'Father Abbott;' many delighted to call 
him their 'spiritual father; ' and not rarely were public 
assemblies melted into tears by the sight of robust men, 
hardy but reclaimed sinners, rushing into his arms and 
weeping with filial gratitude upon his neck." The 
sacramental question continued to agitate the Societies. 
The advance was principally southward. Philadelphia 
and New York being in possession of the British, the 
Societies in that region were much depleted. After a 
threatening division of opinion between the Northern 
and Southern Societies on the administration of the 
sacraments, Asbury was again recognized as general 
superintendent in 1781. A letter from Wesley, dated 
October 3, 1783, was read at the Conference in May, 
1784, urging them to stand by the Methodist doctrine 
and discipline and " not to receive any who make any 
difficulty of receiving Francis Asbury as the general 
assistant." The membership now amounted to about 
fifteen thousand, but only about sixteen hundred were 
north of Mason and Dixon's line. Asbury's allowance 



68 THE MAECH OF METHODISM. 

was fixed at twenty-four pounds per annum, with Lis 
traveling expenses. Local preachers were to emanci- 
pate their slaves in States where the laws would admit, 
and "traveling preachers who now or hereafter shall 
be possessed of slaves, and shall refuse to manumit 
them where the laws permit, shall be employed no 
more." 

4. The Methodist Episcopal Church. — The time 
had arrived when, in the providence of God, American 
Methodism was to take an organic form. For many 
years Wesley had been convinced that bishops and 
presbyters were of one order, and that as a presbyter 
he had as much right to ordain as to administer the 
sacraments. Charles Wesley was much opposed to or- 
daining the preachers, declaring that to ordain was to 
separate from the Church of England. The needs of 
the scattered Societies in America were pressed upon 
Wesley. After mature consideration he proceeded on 
the 2d of September, 1784, to ordain Richard Whatcoat 
and Thomas Vasey as presbyters, and at the same time 
ordained Thomas Coke as superintendent of the Meth- 
odist Societies in America, authorizing him to set apart 
Francis Asbury likewise for the same office. They 
arrived in New York on November 3, 1784. After 
consultation with Asbury it was agreed that a General 
Conference should be held in Baltimore in December. 
Messengers were dispatched to summon the ministers, 
and on the 24th day of December the Conference, which 
has since become known as the Christmas Conference, 
began its session in Lovely Lane Chapel. A letter was 
read from Wesley setting forth his views, and, following 
his counsel, it was agreed to form a Methodist Episcopal 



TRIUMPHS IN THE NEW WORLD. 09 

Church, in which the liturgy, as presented by Wesley, 
should be read and the sacraments be administered by a 
superintendent, elders, and deacons, who should be or- 
dained as prescribed in Mr. Wesley's prayer book. 
Coke, assisted by his elders, Whatcoat and Vasey, or- 
dained Asbury on successive days as deacon, elder, and 
superintendent. In the Minutes of the Conference of 
1787 the title bishop was employed for the first time. 
The alteration was opposed by some of the preachers, 
but a majority agreed to let it remain.* (It may here 
be noted that the General Conference of 1884 ordered a 
rubric to be inserted at the beginning of the ritual for 
the consecration of bishops, declaring that it is not an 
ordination to a higher order in the ministry above that 
of elders, but a fitting consecration for the duties of 
superintendency in the Church.) 

5. Articles of Religion, rules prescribing the duties 
of superintendents, elders, and deacons, were adopted. 
The allowance or salary of preachers and their wives 
was defined. A plan of relief was devised for superan- 
nuated preachers, their widows and orphans. The 
subject of slavery was again considered and measures 
taken for its extirpation. The Christmas Conference 
adjourned, after a session of ten days, in great peace 
and unanimity. The Church now numbered about 
eighty ministers and fifteen thousand members. The 
sacraments, which had heretofore been received, with 
only occasional deviations, from the hands of the 
clergy of the Church of England, were now regularly 
administered in the chapels of the Methodist Societies. 
Rev. Samuel A. Seaman, in the Annals of New York 
* See The Governing Conference in Methodism, Neely. 



70 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

Methodism, calls attention to two items in an old 
record of John Street Church, under date of January 

8, 1785: 

2 prayer books for preaching-house £0 13s. Od 

For the altar-piece 16 16 1 

This is supposed to be referred to by Dr. Coke, who 
writes: " We expected that this Society [John Street] 
would have made the greatest opposition to our plan, 
but on the contrary they have been most forward to 
promote it. They have already put up a reading-desk 
and railed in a communion table." We find also 
that "chapel" or " preaching-house " gives place to 
" church," this item being in the old record: 

Paid for recording election roll of the trustees of the church, 
£0 6s. Od. 

6. Distinguished Pioneers. — We must go forward 
to the year 1792 to find the action which made com- 
plete the system of Conferences of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. The local or Annual Conferences, then 
sometimes designated as District Conferences, con- 
tinued to be held without any provision for a General 
Conference or governing body. This provision was 
made in 1792. Meanwhile let us take note of some of 
the men who w T ere conspicuous in pressing forward the 
work. 

7. Thomas Coke was, by appointment of Wesley, 
the first bishop of the Church. He was born in Brecon, 
Wales, September 9, 1747. He was educated at Oxford 
University. While in the exercise of the ministry of 
the Established Church he became acquainted with the 
Methodists, and was so earnest in his labors as to excite 



TRIUMPHS W THE NEW WORLD. 71 

much opposition from his fellow-churchmen. He united 
with Mr. Wesley, and soon became recognized as a 
preacher of great talent, preaching to immense congre- 
gations on the commons and fields of London. In 1782 
he held the first Irish Conference, and, as we have seen, 
at Wesley's urgent request he came to America in 1784 
to organize American Methodism. His subsequent 
career was one of abundant labors and sacrifices for the 
cause of Christ. He was filled with the missionary 
spirit. He crossed the Atlantic eighteen times. He 
spent a large fortune in the service of his Master. He 
was a voluminous writer. He organized the Negro 
missions of the West Indies. Finally, when about 
seventy years of age, he undertook at his own expense 
a mission to the East Indies, and died on the voyage 
in 1814, and was buried at sea. "His stature was 
small, his voice feminine, but his soul was as vast 
as ever dwelt in a human frame." His colleague, 
Asbury, said of him, " A minister of Christ, in zeal, in 
labors, and in services, the greatest man of the last 
century." 

8. Francis Asbury, the colleague of Coke, was, by 
reason of more direct and continuous service, really the 
pioneer bishop of American Methodism. His labors in 
organizing and extending the Church are without par- 
allel. " Within the compass of every year the borderers 
of Canada and the planters of Mississippi looked for the 
coming of this primitive bishop, and were not disappoint- 
ed. His travels averaged six thousand miles a year, often 
through pathless forests and untraveled wildernesses. 
He rivaled Melanchthon and Luther in boldness. He 
combined the enthusiasm of Xavier with the far-reach- 



72 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

ing foresight and keen discrimination of Wesley."* 
" It has been estimated that in his American ministry he 
preached about 16,500 sermons, that he presided in no less 
than 224 Annual Conferences, and ordained more than 
4,000 preachers." He reached Richmond, Va., March 
24, 1816, and preached there his last sermon. He was 
carried to and from the pulpit and sat while preaching. 
"On Sunday, 31, he expired, raising both his hands, 
when unable to speak, in affirmative reply to an inquiry 
respecting his trust and comfort in Christ." 

9. Jesse Lee was born in Virginia, 1758, and was con- 
verted in 1773. In 1776 he experienced a state of grace 
which he called " perfect love." " At length I could say 
I have nothing but the love of Christ in my heart." In 
1780 he was drafted into the militia, but refused to bear 
arms. For some months, however, he suffered many hard- 
ships, but preached the Gospel with great effect wherever 
opportunity offered. Released from the army, he con- 
tinued to preach in Virginia and North Carolina. In 
1789 he began his labors in New England, which con- 
tinued for eleven years, and which resulted in establish- 
ing Methodism there, though bitterly opposed by many 
classes. He writes in his journal, " I love to break up 
new ground and hunt the souls in New England, though 
it is hard work ; but when Christ is with me hard 
things are made easy and rough ways made smooth." 
In 1807 he published the first History of Methodism in 
America. From 1807 to 1816 he served at various 
times as chaplain to the House of Representatives and 
the Senate. He traveled much with Asbury, who had 
early thought of him for the episcopal office, to which 
*McCliutock & Strong's Encyclopaedia. 



TEIUMPHS IN THE NEW WOELD. 73 

on one occasion he lacked but one vote of an election. 
He is described as a man of excellent judgment, pos- 
sessing uncommon colloquial powers and a fascinating 
address. He died September 12, 1816, in much joy, 
sending assurance to his distant family that he was 
" dying in the Lord." 

10. Freeborn G-arrettson was born in Maryland, 
1752 ; was converted and began to preach in 1775; was 
ordained in 1784, and continued to labor up to 1827. 
He traveled extensively, extending Methodism into the 
northern part of New York and into Connecticut, Ver- 
mont, and Nova Scotia. "In his semicentennial ser- 
mon he says that he traversed the mountains and val- 
leys, frequently on foot, with his knapsack on his back, 
guided by Indian paths in the wilderness; that he had 
often to wade through morasses half -leg deep in mud 
and water, frequently satisfying his hunger with a 
piece of bread and pork from his knapsack, quenching 
his thirst from a brook, and resting his weary limbs on 
the leaves of the trees." His death occurred in New 
York city, in 1827, in the seventy-sixth year of his age 
and the fifty-second of his itinerant ministry. 

1 1 . Ezekiel Cooper was born in Maryland, 1763, and 
was converted when quite young under the preaching of 
Garrettson. He entered the ministry in 1785, and was 
a companion and fellow-laborer with Jesse Lee in New 
England. In 1800 he was elected by the General Con- 
ference Agent and Editor of Methodist Books. "He 
gave to the 'Book Concern' that impulse and organiza- 
tion which has rendered it the largest publishing estab- 
lishment in the New World." (Stevens.) " He became 
one of the most able pulpit orators of his day. At 



74 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

times an irresistible pathos accompanied his preaching, 
and, in the forest worship, audiences of ten thousand 
would be so enchanted by his discourse that the most 
profound attention, interest, and solemnity prevailed." 
He ended his ministry in great joy on February 21, 1847, 
in the eighty-fourth year of his age. 

12. Important Legislation. — The practice of con- 
sulting all the Annual Conferences before consummat- 
ing legislation was fraught with so much difficulty that 
an attempt was made to form a council which should 
prepare matters to be laid before the Annual Confer- 
ences, no act to be binding until approved by the 
council, which was to consist of the bishops and the 
presiding elders. Such a council was held in 1789 and 
1790, but was abandoned because its acts had no bind- 
ing force. To remedy the difficulty, the Annual Con- 
ferences agreed to call a General Conference, to be held 
in 1792 at Baltimore. Bishop Coke had left America 
in 1791 on hearing of Wesley's death; he returned just 
in time to attend the General Conference, which began 
its session November 1, 1792. Provision was now made 
for the regular assembling, every fourth year, of the 
General Conference. The office of presiding elder was 
recognized, and an Annual Conference ordered to be held 
for each presiding elder's district, the limits of which 
were to be determined by the bishops. A large portion 
of the time, however, was taken up in discussing a prop- 
osition of James O'Kelly to abridge the power of the 
bishops in making the appointments. " The arguments, 
for and against, were weighty, and handled in a mas- 
terly manner." The proposition did not prevail. O'Kelly 
and a few others sent a letter to the Conference with- 



TRIUMPHS IN THE NEW WORLD. TO 

drawing from the connection. Asbury records: "The 
Conference ended in peace; my mind was kept in peace, 
and my soul enjoyed rest in the stronghold." The 
numbers reported at this Conference are 266 preachers 
and 65,980 members. The secession was followed with 
a bitter controversy and a loss of about seven thousand 
members. 

13. The Field and the Men. — The latter part of 
the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth 
century was indeed a heroic period in the history of 
American Methodism. The extent of the field will be 
comprehended by noting the seven Annual Conferences 
which the General Conference of 1804 denned. They 
were the New England, New York, Philadelphia, Bal- 
timore, Virginia, South Carolina, and Western. The 
territory covered was from Canada to Georgia, from 
the Atlantic to Ohio. In 1800 there were reported 
287 traveling preachers and 64,894 members and pro- 
bationers. In 1812 there were 688 preachers and 
1 95,35*7 members, and the Church was growing at the 
rate of about 10,000 members annually. Yellow fever 
was prevalent in several seasons from 1793 to 1798. 
Many prominent laborers succumbed to it. 

14. John Dickins, who had been received as a 
traveling preacher in 1777, and who was very use- 
ful during the Revolutionary period, was stricken 
down by the fever in 1798. He had planned with 
Asbury in 1780 the first Methodist Seminary (situated 
at Abingdon, eighteen miles north of Baltimore), which 
became known as " Cokesbury College," and which 
was destroyed by fire in 1795. He was also the first 
book agent, loaning from his private funds $600 to 



76 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

commence the business, the outcome of which may now 
be seen in the two publishing houses in New York 
and Cincinnati, with a capital of over $3,000,000 and 
doing business to the extent of nearly $2,000,000 per 
annum. On his deathbed he declared, "Divine wisdom 
cannot err." " I can rejoice in His will, whether for 
life or death." 

15. About the year 1800 camp meetings were much 
in vogue. Lee writes of them: "Every discourse and 
every exhortation given during the meeting was at- 
tended by displays of divine power. Almost every 
hour and every minute was employed in the wor- 
ship of God." The simplicity and self-denial of the 
preachers at this time is well pictured by an English 
minister who visited this country in 1802. He says: 
" I was greatly surprised to meet in the preachers as- 
sembled in New York such examples of simplicity and 
labor and self-denial. Some of them had come five or 
six hundred miles to attend the Conference. They had 
little appearance of clerical costume; many of them 
had not a single article of black cloth; their good 
bishops set them the example, neither of whom was 
dressed in black; but the want of this was abundantly 
compensated by a truly primitive zeal in the cause of 
their divine Master." 

16. The South was the witness of the labors of 
men like George Dougharty. " By application and 
perseverance he took a stand in the front rank of the 
South Carolina band of pioneers, marshaling the armies 
of the sacramental host from the seashore to the Blue 
Ridge." In 1801 he was attacked by a mob in Charles- 
ton and dragged from the church to the pump, where 



TRIUMPHS IN THE NEW WORLD. 77 

he would probably have perished but for the interfer- 
ence of a woman. As the result of the treatment he 
was attacked with consumption, from which he died 
in 1807. 

17. Billy Hibbard was a familiar name in Method- 
ism in the Northern States. Entering the ministry in 
1798, he toiled on amid many privations for forty- 
six years. He was an eccentric but very able man. 
He was noted not only for great piety, but for wit 
and humor. He disclaimed in Conference the name 
of William, and being told by the bishop that Billy 
was a little boy's name, he replied that he was a very 
little boy when his father gave it to him. In a season 
of suffering he said, " I am now tasting of my Master's 
fare, and, O, what an honor that I may suffer a little 
with my Master ! " When he was near death he said, 
"My mind is calm as a summer eve." 

18. Peter Cartwright appears in the Annual Con- 
ference first in 1804, when he is ordained deacon by 
Bishop Asbury and elder by Bishop McKendree ; and 
thenceforward, until, in 1874, in his eighty-eighth year, 
he passed away in peace, he was a prominent figure in 
the Methodism of the West. He was eight years in the 
Western Conference, as many in the Genesee, four in 
the Kentucky, and forty-eight in the Illinois Conference. 
As a pioneer in Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois his services 
were of inestimable value. In the control of rough and 
wicked men he had superior power. On one occasion, 
when he had vanquished a mob, and in doing so had felled 
a man to the ground, he said, " I feel a clear conscience, 
for under the circumstances we have done right." He 
then preached from " The gates of hell shall not pre- 



78 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

vail." So great was the effect of the preaching that 
" not less than three hundred fell like dead men in bat- 
tle, and mourners were strewed all over the camp- 
ground." "Rough and hardy as the oak; overflowing 
with geniality and humor; a tireless worker and traveler; 
a sagacious counselor, giving often in the strangest dis- 
guises of wit and humor the shrewdest suggestions of 
wisdom; an unfailing friend, an incomparable compan- 
ion, a faithful patriot, and an earnest Methodist, Peter 
Cartwright was one of the most noted, most interest- 
ing, most inexplicable men of the West and of Method- 
ism." (Stevens.) 

19. Henry B. Bascom. "Born in Pennsylvania 
in 1796, removed to Kentucky, and thence to Ohio in 
1812, and the same year became a class leader and ex- 
horter. The next year he joined the Conference, and 
began the itinerant career which soon rendered his 
fame national as one of the most noted pulpit orators 
of the New World." In 1823 he was elected chaplain 
to Congress; in 1827 he was called to the presidency of 
Madison College, Pennsylvania, and subsequently held 
many positions of importance in connection with 
Church institutions. He was a delegate to the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1844, when the Church was divided, 
and joined in the organization of the Church, South, of 
which he was made a bishop in 1849. He died Sep- 
tember 8, 1850, "worn out with toil." 



THE NEW CENTURY. 79 



VIII. 

THE NEW CENTURY. 

1. 1800-1812, Delegated General Confer- 
ence. — In 1800 Richard Whatcoat was elected bishop 
by four votes over Jesse Lee. The Conference was 
noted by a great revival which took place during its 
session. In 1804 the pastoral term was limited to two 
consecutive years on any one charge; previously there 
had been no limit to the episcopal prerogative in mak- 
ing appointments, and some had been three years in one 
appointment. The title of " Quarterly Meeting Con- 
ference" was given to the quarterly assembly of the 
official members of the circuits. The "Book Concern" 
was ordered to be removed from Philadelphia to New 
York. In 1808 William McKendree was elected bishop. 
The Conference was agitated by the discussion of the 
question of making the General Conference a delegated 
body, a memorial in favor of which had been presented 
to the Annual Conferences by the New York Confer- 
ence. A plan for a delegated General Conference was 
finally adopted on the basis of one member for each five 
of the traveling ministers. Full power was given to 
the Conference to make rules and regulations for the 
proper conduct of the Church, except as provided in 
what are popularly known as the " Restrictive Rules." 
(See page 92.) The ratio of representation has several 
times been altered, and is now one ministerial delegate 



80 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

for every forty-five members of each Annual Conference; 
but no Conference shall be denied the right of one min- 
isterial delegate. On May 1, 1812, the first delegated* 
General Conference assembled in the " old John Street 
Church," New York. There were ninety delegates 
present. The Church now numbered 190,000 members, 
2,000 local and 700 traveling preachers. 

2. 1812-1832, Important Secessions.— In 1816 
Enoch George and Robert R. Roberts were elected 
bishops. In this year the African Methodist Episcopal 
Church was formed under the leadership of Richard 
Allen, who with others seceded from their white breth- 
ren in Philadelphia and elected Allen bishop. In 1820 
the Missionary Society, which had been formed in New 
York in 1819, was officially recognized by the General 
Conference. Another secession of colored members 
took place in New York in 1819, and the African Meth- 
odist Episcopal Zion Church was formed. A proposi- 
tion for the election of presiding elders by the Aunual 
Conferences on the nomination of the bishops, instead of 
their appointment by the bishops, was before the Gen- 
eral Conferences of 1816, 1820, and 1824, and was the oc- 
casion of much excitement. On account of a resolution 
passed in its favor by the Conference of 1820 Joshua 
Soule, who had been elected bishop, declined ordination, 
and resigned the office on the ground that the provision 
was a violation of the restrictive rules. The General 
Conference of 1828 finally rescinded the action. At 
the General Conference of 1824 Joshua Soule was again 
elected bishop, and Elijah Hedding was also elected. In 
1826 the publication of The Christian Advocate was com- 
menced. At the General Conference of 1828 permission 



THE NEW CENTURY. 81 

was given to the Canada Conference to form a separate 
and distinct Church, which was accomplished in October 
of that year. The action on the presiding elder ques- 
tion, together with much discussion on the subject of 
the rights of the laity, led to a secession of a number 
of ministers and members, and finally to the formation 
in 1830 of the "Methodist Protestant Church." This 
body did away with episcopacy and introduced lay rep- 
resentation. The General Conference of 1832 elected 
James O. Andrew and John Emory bishops. 

3. 1832-1844, The Great Division.— In 1836 
Beverly Waugh, Thomas A Morris, and Wilbur Fisk 
were elected bishops. Dr. Fisk declined the office in 
order to remain at the Wesleyan University, of which 
he was president. The Liberia Conference was organ- 
ized. In 1843 the American Wesley an Church was 
organized chiefly on antislavery grounds. The General 
Conference of 1844 was one of the most memorable 
in the history of the Church. Edmund S. Janes and 
Leonid as L. Hamline were elected bishops. The sub- 
ject of slavery had been agitating the Church. The 
Baltimore Conference had suspended one of its mem- 
bers on the charge of refusing to manumit slaves re- 
ceived by marriage. Bishop Andrew had married a lady 
through whom he became a slaveholder. The General 
Conference passed a resolution declaring it to be the 
sense of the Conference that the bishop " desist from 
the exercise of his office so long as this impediment re- 
mains." The delegates from the South presented a dec- 
laration that in their judgment the action of the General 
Conference made it impossible for the ministry to be 
successful in the South. A committee was appointed 



82 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

with a view, if possible, of adjusting matters amicably. 
The committee near the end of the session reported a 
plan subsequently known as the " Plan of Separation," 
to be operative " should the Annual Conferences in the 
slaveholding States find it necessary to unite in a dis- 
tinct ecclesiastical connection." The bishops were to 
lay the proper part of the report before the Annual Con- 
ferences. This action was very differently construed 
by those entertaining diverse views on the subject. Many 
believed that the whole report was dependent upon the 
action of the Annual Conferences, while others con- 
tended that the plan was operative at once. The Con- 
ferences failed to ratify the change of the restrictive 
rules so as to permit of a division of the Church 
property, and the General Conference of 1848 declared 
the plan null and void. Meanwhile the members of the 
Southern Conferences, acting under the view that the 
plan was at once operative, proceeded to elect delegates 
to a convention to meet on the 1st of May, 1845, in the 
city of Louisville. The convention consisted of dele- 
gates from fourteen Annual Conferences, and was pre- 
sided over by Bishops Soule and Andrew. "The Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South," was organized. A 
General Conference was called for May 1, 1846, which 
elected additional bishops, and has since met quadren- 
nially. A suit was instituted in the United States 
Courts for a division of property, and was finally de- 
cided in favor of the Church, South. This secession 
resulted in a loss of about half a million members and 
property to the extent of $375,000. 

4. 1844-1872, Lay Delegation. — The General 
Conference of 1852 elected as bishops Levi Scott, Mat- 



THE NEW CENTURY. 83 

thew Simpson, Osmon C. Baker, and Edward R. Ames. 
Bishop Hamline, on account of ill health, tendered his 
resignation, which the Conference reluctantly accepted, 
and he became a superannuated member of the Ohio 
Conference. In 1856 the election of a missionary 
bishop was authorized, limiting his jurisdiction to the 
field for which he might be appointed, and in 1858 
Francis Burns was elected by the Liberia Conference 
and ordained for that field, and was the first colored 
bishop of the Church. The General Conference of 
1860 was again occupied with the question of slavery. 
The chapter in the Discipline on this subject was so 
altered as to declare very strongly against-it. This year 
witnessed another secession in the formation of the 
" Free Methodist Church." It grew out of the expul- 
sion of ministers and members because of alleged acts 
of insubordination. They professed, however, only a 
desire to restore the simplicity of Wesleyan Methodism 
in doctrine and practice. The Emancipation Proclama- 
tion of Abraham Lincoln, which on January 1, 1863, 
set free nearly four million slaves, found the nation 
engaged in a struggle for existence. Into the Union 
armies went thousands of the young men of the Church. 
The General Conference of 1864 appointed a committee 
to assure President Lincoln of their purpose to heartily 
support the government. In his response the President 
said: "Nobly sustained as the government has been by 
all the Churches, I could utter nothing which might in 
the least appear invidious against any. Yet, without 
this, it may fairly be said that the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, not less devoted than the best, is by its 
great numbers the most important of all. It is no fault 



84: THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

in others that the Methodist Episcopal Church sends 
more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospital, 
and more prayers to heaven than any. God bless the 
Methodist Church ! God bless all the Churches ! Blessed 
be God, who, in this our great trial, giveth us the 
Churches." To provide for those in the South who de- 
sired to remain with the Methodist Episcopal Church 
the Conference authorized the formation there of An- 
nual Conferences. At this Conference Davis W. 
Clark, Edward Thompson, and Calvin Kingsley were 
elected bishops. The limit of the pastoral term, which 
had been two years since 1804, was extended to three 
years. The year 1865 witnessed the close of the war, 
and in 1866 the Church was called to the celebration 
of the centenary of American Methodism. Special 
services were held. Large amounts of money were con- 
tributed for the payment of church debts and the erec- 
tion and endowment of institutions of learning. It is 
estimated that these gifts amounted to ten million 
dollars. Bishop Burns, missionary bishop for Liberia, 
having died in 1863, the General Conference of 1864 
authorized the Liberia Conference to elect a successor 
to him, and the Conference at its session in 1866 elected 
Rev. John Wright Roberts, and he was ordained in 
New York city in June of the same year. The General 
Conference of 1868 passed a resolution expressing a 
willingness to admit lay delegates when the Church 
should approve. A plan was submitted to the churches 
and the Annual Conferences, and, having been approved, 
the General Conference of 1872 admitted the lay 
delegates who had been elected. Eight additional 
bishops were elected, namely, Thomas Bowman, Wil- 



THE NEW CENTURY. 85 

Ham L. Harris, Randolph S. Foster, Isaac W. Wiley, 
Stephen M. Merrill, Edward G. Andrews, Gilbert Haven, 
and Jesse T. Peck. At this Conference incipient steps 
were taken toward fraternal relations with the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church, South. 

5. 1872-1884, Centennial of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. — The year 1874 witnessed the or- 
ganization of the " Colored Methodist Episcopal Church 
of America " under the patronage of the Church, South. 
At the General Conference of 1876 fraternal messengers 
were received from the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, and a joint committee on fraternity was pro- 
vided for. A committee was appointed with authority 
to prepare a new Hymnal. The Conference of 1880 
elected as bishops Henry W. Warren, Cyrus D. Foss, 
John F. Hurst, and Erastus O. Haven. The venerable 
Bishop Scott, ordained in 1852, -was returned on the 
list as "non-effective," and appropriate resolutions 
adopted. The relation of women to the Church was 
expressed in the following action : it was ordered that 
" the pronouns he, his, and him, when used in the Dis- 
pline with reference to stewards, class leaders, and 
Sunday school superintendents, shall not be so con- 
strued as to exclude women from such offices. 1 ' The 
ruling of Bishop Andrews in the two following cases 
was approved. At the New England Conference: "In 
my judgment the law of the Church does not authorize 
the ordination of women; I therefore am not at liberty 
to submit to the vote of the Conference the vote to elect 
women to orders." At the New York Conference: 
"The Discipline of the Church does not provide for, 
nor contemplate, the licensing of women as local 



86 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

preachers, and therefore the action of said Conference 
(Poaglikeepsie District Conference) and of its president 
was without authority of law." Preliminary action 
was taken in reference to celebrating the approaching 
centenary of the denomination. 

The General Conference of 1884 met in the centennial 
year of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The proper 
method of recognizing this important event was the 
subject of earnest consideration. A special committee 
was appointed. The plan which had been formulated 
by representatives from the different branches of Meth- 
odism for holding a Conference in Baltimore in Decem- 
ber was approved. It was recommended that the 
"chief object of the connectional offering should be the 
cause of education." The committee closed their report 
with these observations: "Finally, reviewing the clos- 
ing century, we are filled with amazement and devout 
thanksgiving. For a church polity so effective, for 
doctrines so scriptural, for a ritual so precious, for 
leaders so heroic, for experience so vital, for a success 
so unexampled, we give God thanks. That in our re- 
joicings we may be preserved from all ecclesiastical 
pride and vainglory, let us take to heart the earnest 
recommendation of our chief pastors, 'That the year 
1884 be one of special consecration, that we may humble 
ourselves before God and fervently plead for that pre- 
cious baptism of the Holy Spirit without which nothing 
good or great can be accomplished.' " At this Confer- 
ence William X. Ninde, John M. Walden, Willard F. 
Mallalieu, and Charles H. Fowler were elected bishops. 
A missionary bishop for Africa was authorized and 
Rev. William Taylor elected. The publication of a 



THE NEW CENTURY. 87 

hymnal for Sunday schools, revivals, and social wor- 
ship was ordered. The Epworth Hymnal is the out- 
come. The report of the Committee on Temperance, 
which was adopted, concludes with these words: "We 
proclaim as our motto voluntary total abstinence from 
all intoxicants as the true ground of personal temper- 
ance, and complete legal prohibition of the traffic in 
alcoholic drinks as the duty of civil government." The 
following resolution concerning the Freedmen's Aid 
Society was adopted : " Resolved, That as a General 
Conference we render thanks to God for the success 
that has attended the work of the Church in the 
Southern States by which it has come to be perma- 
nently planted in every State in that section, so that we 
are now, in the matter of occupation as well as admin- 
istration, a national Church;" and the following from 
the Committee on the State of the Church was also 
adopted: "Resolved, That this General Conference de- 
clares the policy of the Methodist Episcopal Church to 
be that no member of any society within the Church 
shall be excluded from public worship in any and every 
edifice of the denomination, and no student shall be ex- 
cluded from instruction in any and every school under 
the supervision of the Church because of race, color, or 
previous condition of servitude." The Centennial Con- 
ference of American Methodism assembled in the Mount 
Vernon Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore, Md., 
Wednesday morning, December 10. The occasion was 
one of great interest and profit. The different branches 
of Methodism were represented by delegates. The 
topics considered covered the rise, progress, methods, 
and success of Methodism in the United States and 



88 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

Canada. The causes of success and possible dangers were 
discussed. Education, missions, and Sunday schools 
were ably represented, and the missions of Methodism 
to the extremes of society emphasized. "Extremes of 
society ! " exclaims Dr. J. W. Hamilton, " there are 
none, if we have men tall enough to stand in one and 
reach up into another. And this the Wesley s and their 
preachers after them did do. It was no common enthu- 
siast who could wring gold from the close-fisted Frank- 
lin and admiration from the fastidious Horace Walpole, 
or who could look down from the top of a green knoll 
at Kingswood on twenty thousand colliers from the 
Bristol coalpits, and see as he preached the tears making 
white channels down their blackened cheeks. What, 
then, is the mission of Methodism to the extremes of 
society now ? And what will it be in the century which 
now begins? Just what it was when this first century 
began. Let the spirit of the fathers seize their sons: 

" 'Come, Holy Ghost, for thee we call; 
Spirit of burning come.' " 

A paper was presented by Rev. J. H. Vincent, D.D., 
having reference to forming young people's societies, 
to be known as " Oxford Leagues." This subject was 
referred to a special committee, who reported in favor 
thereof and declared the objects to be : 1. The more 
careful and devout study of the Holy Scriptures; 
2. The cultivation of a nobler and purer personal 
Christian character; 3. The study of the Christian 
classics for literary culture; 4. The devising of meth- 
ods for doing good to others. 

This recommendation met with the approval of the 



THE NEW CENTURY. 89 

Church, and a number of leagues were organized. The 
Young People's Methodist Alliance had already been 
started in 1883. Subsequently other young people's 
societies were formed, and at a conference of repre- 
sentatives of the various organizations, held in Cleve- 
land, May, 1889, these societies were all merged into a 
new society to be known as the " Epworth League." 
Its plans and wonderful growth will be noticed later. 

6. 1884-1892, Problems of To-day,— The Gen- 
eral Conference of 1888 took action upon several im- 
portant subjects. At its opening it was confronted with 
a new issue. Several women had been returned as del- 
egates. Protests against their admission were handed 
to the bishops. The Conference finally sustained these 
protests and decided " that, under the constitution and 
laws of the Church as they now are, women are not 
eligible as lay delegates in the General Conference." 
Subsequently the Conference decided to submit the 
question of their admission to the churches and Annual 
Conferences, to be voted upon by them. The limit of 
the pastoral term was extended to five years and that 
of presiding elders to six years. A missionary bishop 
for India and Malaysia was authorized, and Rev. James 
M. Thoburn was elected. The work of deaconesses was 
recognized, their duties defined, and provision made 
for authorizing proper persons to perform such work. 
Self-supporting missions were the subject of a number 
of memorials. It was decided "that missionaries em- 
ployed and churches organized on the self-supporting 
plan shall be entitled to the same rights and be amenable 
to the Discipline of the Church the same as mission- 
aries and churches in other fields." The name of the 



90 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

Liberia Conference was changed to Africa Conference, 
to include the whole of Africa. Our missions in Japan 
were authorized, under proper conditions, to unite with 
other branches of Methodism in one body. Provision 
was made for submitting to the Annual Conferences 
the question of equal ministerial and lay representation 
in the General Conference. Resolutions were adopted 
authorizing the centennial celebration of the " Book 
Concern" in 1889. Five additional bishops were 
elected: John H. Vincent, James N. FitzGerald, Isaac 
W. Jo}^ce, John P. Newman, and Daniel A. Goodsell. 

The General Conference of 1892 again had before 
it the vexed questions of equal ministerial and lay rep- 
resentation and of admitting women to represent the 
laity, neither proposition as presented by the Confer- 
ence of 1888 to the Annual Conferences having received 
the necessary vote to secure its adoption. Both ques- 
tions were again submitted to the vote of the Annual 
Conferences, and also the question of changing the 
basis of ministerial representation so as to be " not 
more than one for every forty-five nor less than 
one for every ninety." The question of admitting 
women was submitted in the peculiar form of the prop- 
osition to amend the second restrictive rule by adding 
the words " and said delegates must be male members," 
so " that if the amendment does not receive the votes 
of three fourths of the members of the Annual Confer- 
ences and two thirds of the General Conference the 
second restrictive rule shall be so construed that the 
words ' lay delegates ' may include men and women." 
It will be observed that this proposition throws upon 
those opposed to the admission of women the onus of 



THE NEW CENTURY. 91 

securing the necessary vote to insert " must be male 
members;" while they contend that that necessity 
should have been laid upon those favoring their admis- 
sion by a change that would declare that women as 
well as men are eligible as lay representatives. The 
proposition has caused much discussion, and is even 
thought by some to be unconstitutional, because it ap- 
parently gives to the Annual Conferences the right to 
interpret the Discipline, which only the General Con- 
ference can do. It will also be borne in mind that 
though this question is also submitted to the vote of 
the churches it is only the vote of the Conferences that 
can determine the change. The proposition to equalize 
the ministerial and lay representation was submitted 
with the recommendation of two thirds of the General 
Conference, and the action will be complete if approved 
by the Annual Conferences, while the submission of 
the questions of altering the ratio of representation 
and of admitting women is without recommendation, 
and will require the vote of the next General Confer- 
ence to complete the action. 

The General Conference of 1888 having taken the 
initiative in forming a national organization to preserve 
the Christian Sabbath, and subsequently the " American 
Sabbath Union " having been formed, it was resolved, 
" that we heartily indorse its work, and recommend it as 
worthy of the earnest cooperation of individuals and 
churches throughout our connection." The " City 
Evangelization Union," formed in Pittsburg, March, 
1892, was recognized as one of the aggressive agencies 
of the Church, having for its aim to bring into helpful 
relations the local organizations within the bounds of 



92 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

the Annual Conferences. Resolutions were adopted 
approving the establishment of the "American Univer- 
sity " at Washington and accepting the patronage of 
the same, and the Church was called on to secure an 
endowment of ten millions of dollars. A resolution 
was adopted condemning certain features of the Act of 
Congress of May 5, 1892, excluding Chinese laborers, 
and calling on Congress "to remove these objection- 
able features, and thus secure to Chinese persons resi- 
dent among us the rights to which they are entitled 
alike by justice and humanity." The following pream- 
bles and resolutions in regard to outrages on our colored 
members in the South were adopted: 

" Whereas, There are about two hundred and fifty 
thousand colored members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, a large proportion of whom reside in the 
South; and, whereas, many of these members, in com- 
mon with others of their race, are the victims of violence, 
mob law, lynching, and other outrages against human- 
ity; and, whereas, there is constantly practiced against 
these people an unjust discrimination in the laws for 
separate coaches on railroads recently passed by several 
State Legislatures; and, whereas, some of our white min- 
isters, laboring to promote the education and elevation 
of the colored people, have also been subjected to out- 
rage, and in some instances have been obliged to aban- 
don their philanthropic work ; and, whereas, the means 
of redress for these outrages and of safety against them 
are notoriously inadequate for the protection of our 
brethren thus wrongfully treated; therefore, 

" Resolved, 1. That this General Conference, repre- 
senting over two million two hundred and fifty thou- 



THE NEW CENTURY. 93 

sand communicants and some ten million adherents of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church who are citizens of the 
United States, hereby utters its emphatic protest against 
this unjust and outrageous treatment of an important 
portion of the membership of the Church and of the 
citizenship of the nation. 

" 2. That we call upon the general government to 
use all its legitimate authority and its influence to put 
an end to the injustice and wrong herein mentioned, 
and to secure protection and equality before the law to 
these citizens of this republic. 

" 3. That we also call upon the members of Congress 
and of the several State Legislatures, and upon the 
executors of law and the administrators of justice in 
the several States, to see that these outrages cease and 
that just laws be enacted, and that these laws be impar- 
tially enforced. 

" 4. That we respectfully request the religious and 
secular press in. the entire country to unite with us in 
denouncing the wrongs and cruelties herein set forth 
and in efforts to secure equality and justice in the 
enactment and enforcement of humane and righteous 
laws." 

Action was taken in reference to a third Ecumenical 
Methodist Conference, to be held in 1901, and authority 
given to appoint eighteen representatives of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church on the Executive Commission. 
Resolutions were passed commending the Columbian 
Exposition, but demanding that " the gates of the Ex- 
position shall not be opened on Sunday." The report 
on the Epworth League refers to its remarkable 
growth in three years to eight thousand chapters and 



94 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

a membership of four hundred thousand young peo- 
ple. A constitution was adopted, a board of control 
was provided for, and an editor of the Epworth Herald 
elected. The report of the Commission on the Con- 
stitution of the Church was indefinitely postponed, and a 
paper presented by Dr. Goucher was adopted, as follows: 

" The section on the General Conference in the Dis- 
cipline of 1808, as adopted by the General Conference 
of 1808, has the nature and force of a constitution. 

" That section, together with such modifications as 
have been adopted since that time in accordance with 
the provisions for amendment in that section, is the 
present constitution, and is now included in paragraphs 
55 to 64, inclusive, in the Discipline of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church of 1888, excepting: 

" 1. The change of the provisions for the calling of an 
extra session of the General Conference from a unani- 
mous to a two-thirds vote of the Annual Conferences; 
and, 

" 2. That which is known as the plan of lay delega- 
tion, as recommended by the General Conference of 
1868, and passed by the General Conference of 1872." 

For a better understanding of this action the sections 
of the Discipline referred to are here given : 

" Section 55. The General Conference shall be com- 
posed of ministerial and lay delegates. The ministerial 
delegates shall consist of one delegate for every forty- 
five members of each Annual Conference, to be ap- 
pointed either by seniority or choice, at the discretion 
of such Annual Conference, yet so that such represent- 
atives shall have traveled at least four full calendar 
years from the time that they were received on trial by 



THE NEW CENTURY. 95 

an Annual Conference, and are in full connection at the 
time of holding the Conference.* 

"Sec. 56. The lay delegates shall consist of two lay- 
men for each Annual Conference, except such Confer- 
ences as have but one ministerial delegate, which Con- 
ferences shall each be entitled to one lay delegate. 

"Sec. 57. The lay delegate shall be chosen by an 
Electoral Conference of laymen, which shall assemble 
for the purpose on the third day of the session of the 
Annual Conference, at the place of its meeting, at its 
session immediately preceding that of the General Con- 
ference. 

"Sec. 58. The Electoral Conference shall be com- 
posed of one layman from each circuit or station within 
the bounds of the Annual Conference, such laymen to 
be chosen by the last Quarterly Conference preceding 
the time of the assembling of such Electoral Confer- 
ence; and on assembling the Electoral Conference shall 
organize by electing a chairman and secretary of its 
own number; provided, that no layman shall be chosen 
a delegate either to the Electoral Conference or to the 
General Conference who shall be under twenty-five 
years of age, or who shall not have been a member of 
the Church in full connection for the five consecutive 
years preceding the elections.! 

*A transferred preacher shall not be counted twice in the same 
year in the basis of the election of delegates to the General Confer- 
ence, nor vote for delegates to the General Conference in anyAnnual 
Conference where he is not counted as a part of the basis of repre- 
sentation, nor vote twice the same year on any constitutional question. 

f The secretaries of the several Annual and Electoral Conferences 
shall send to the secretary of the last General Conference a certified 
copy of the election of delegates and reserves to the next General 



96 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

"Sec. 59. The General Conference shall meet on the 
first day of May, in the year of our Lord 1812, in the 
city of New York, and thenceforward on the first day 
of May once in four years perpetually, in such place or 
places as shall be fixed on by the General Conference 
from time to time; but the general superintendents, or 
a majority of them, by and with the advice of two 
thirds of all the Annual Conferences, shall have power 
to call an extra session of the General Conference at 
any time, to be constituted in the usual way. But if 
there shall be no general superintendent, then two thirds 
of all the Annual Conferences shall have power to call 
such extra session. 

" Sec. 60. At all times when the General Conference 
is met it shall take two thirds of the whole number of 
ministerial and lay delegates to form a quorum for 
transacting business. 

"Sec. 61. The ministerial and lay delegates shall de- 
liberate and vote together as one body; but they shall 
vote separately whenever such separate vote shall be 
demanded by one third of either order; and in such 
cases the concurrent vote of both orders shall be neces- 
sary to complete an action. 

" Sec. 62. One of the general superintendents shall 
preside in the General Conference; but in case no gen- 
eral superintendent be present the General Conference 
shall choose a president pro tempore. 

"Sec. 63. The General Conference shall have full 
power to make rules and regulations for our Church under 

Conference, in the order of their election, as soon after the election 
as practicable, so that a roll of members and reserves may be pre- 
pared for the opening of the next General Conference. 



THE NEW CENTURY. 97 

the folio wing limitations and restrictions, namely: 1. The 
General Conference shall not revoke, alter, nor change 
our Articles of Religion nor establish any new standards 
or rules of doctrine contrary to our present existing 
and established standards of doctrine. 2. The General 
Conference shall not allow of more than one ministerial 
representative for every fourteen members of an Annual 
Conference; nor of a less number than one for every 
forty-five; nor of more than two lay delegates for an 
Annual Conference ; provided, nevertheless, that when 
there shall be in any Annual Conference a fraction of 
two thirds the number which shall be fixed for the ratio 
of representation, such Annual Conference shall be en- 
titled to an additional delegate for such fraction; and 
provided, also, that no Conference shall be denied the 
privilege of one ministerial and one lay delegate. 
3. The General Conference shall not change nor alter 
any part or rule of our government so as to do away 
episcopacy, nor destroy the plan of our itinerant general 
superintendency; but may appoint a missionary bishop 
or superintendent for any of our foreign missions, limit- 
ing his jurisdiction to the same respectively. 4. The 
General Conference shall not revoke nor change the 
General Rules of the united societies. 5. The General 
Conference shall not do away the privilege of our min- 
isters or preachers of trial by a committee, and of an 
appeal; neither shall they do away the privileges of our 
members of trial before the society or by a committee, 
and of an appeal. 6. The General Conference shall not 
appropriate the produce of the Book Concern nor of 
the Chartered Fund to any purpose other than for the 
benefit of traveling, supernumerary, superannuated, 



98 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

and worn-out preachers, their wives, widows, and 
chidren. 

" Sec. 64. Provided, nevertheless, that upon the con- 
current recommendation of three fourths of all the 
members of the several Conferences who shall be present 
and vote on such recommendation, then a majority of 
two thirds of the General Conference succeeding shall 
suffice to alter any of the above restrictions, excepting 
the first article; and also, whenever such alteration or 
alterations shall have been first recommended by two 
thirds of the General Conference, so soon as three 
fourths of the members of all the Annual Conferences 
shall have concurred as aforesaid, such alteration or 
alterations shall take effect." 

The following action was taken in reference to a pro- 
posed amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States : 

" Whereas, There has been introduced into the Fifty- 
second Congress, in both the Senate and the House of 
Representatives of the national government, and re- 
ferred to the Judiciary Committee in both Houses, the 
following proposed form of a Sixteenth Amendment to 
the Constitution of the United States, accompanied by 
numerous petitions for its passage from all parts of the 
Union, namely: * No State shall pass any law respecting 
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free 
exercise thereof, or use its property or credit, or any 
money raised by taxation, or authorize either to be 
used, for the purpose of founding, maintaining, or aid- 
ing, by appropriation, payment for services, expenses, 
or otherwise, any Church, religious denomination, or 
religious society, or any institution, society, or under- 



THE NEW CENTURY. V\) 

taking which is wholly or in part under sectarian or 
ecclesiastical control.' 

" Whereas, Twenty-one State constitutions already 
contain provisions against the violation of religious 
freedom and the sectarian appropriation of public mon- 
eys, and only a national provision can set the question 
at rest; 

" Wliereas, We believe that the American common 
school system ought to be sacredly guarded from sec- 
tarian encroachments, that religious controversies ought 
to be eliminated from political questions, and that the 
separation of Church and State ought to be perpetual 
for the safety of both our civil and religious liberties; 
therefore, 

"Resolved, That this General Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church appeals to the Fifty-second 
Congress to pass and submit to the several States for 
their action the proposed form of the Sixteenth Amend- 
ment to the Constitution of the United States as a 
peaceful measure of safety that will prevent impending 
perils." 

Action looking to organic union with other Method- 
ist bodies was taken as follows: 

" Whereas, The recent Ecumenical Conference at 
Washington, D. C, earnestly recommended the various 
Methodist bodies of the United States to take all pos- 
sible steps to further organic union; and, whereas, our 
bishops in their quadrennial address to this General 
Conference also urged the consideration of the same 
great subject ; and, whereas, memorials from various 
sections of our Church presented to this Conference re- 
veal a widespread desire for the union of all branches 



100 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

of our American Methodism; and, whereas, this General 
Conference desires to further, so far as possible, frater- 
nity and union with all our brethren; therefore, 

" Hesolved, 1. That the bishops be and are hereby re- 
quested to appoint a commission consisting of three 
bishops, three ministers, and three laymen, which shall 
have power to confer with similar commissions from 
other Methodist bodies upon the desirability and feasi- 
bility of fraternal cooperation and of organic union, and 
report to the General Conference of 1896. 

" 2. That the bishops be and are hereby requested 
to invite the General Conferences of other Methodist 
bodies to appoint similar commissions to confer with 
the commission of the Methodist Episcopal Church." 

No bishops were elected at this General Conference. 

The interest in this Conference was greatly increased 
by large public meetings on behalf of various benevo- 
lent and evangelistic agencies of the Church. The sub- 
ject of temperance had very earnest consideration. A 
permanent committee of fifteen was appointed to aid in 
the formation of Temperance Leagues in all the 
Churches for practical effort in suppressing the liquor 
traffic. We quote a portion of a report as adopted: 

" We reiterate the language of the Episcopal Address 
of 1888: 'The liquor traffic is so pernicious in all its 
bearings, so inimical to the interests of honest trade, so 
repugnant to the moral sense, so injurious to the peace 
and order of society, so hurtful to the home, to the 
Church, and to the body politic, and so utterly antag- 
onistic to all that is precious in life, that the only proper 
attitude toward it for Christians is that of relentless 
hostility. It can never be legalized without sin.' " 



THE NEW CENTURY. 



101 



LIST OF THE BISHOPS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH. 



Name. 


Ordained. 


Remarks. 




1784 
1784 
1800 
1808 
1816 
1816 
1824 

1824 
1832 

1832 
1836 
1836 
1844 

1844 

1852 
1852 
1852 
1852 
1858 
1864 
1864 
1864 
1866 
1872 
1872 
1872 
1872 
1872 
1872 
1872 
1872 
1880 
1880 
1880 
1880 
1884 
1884 
1884 
1884 
1884 
1888 
1888 
1888 
1888 
1888 
1888 


Died May 3, 1814, aged 67. 
" March 31, 1816, aged 71. 


F rancis Asbury 


Richard Whatcoat 


" July 5, 1806, aged 71. 




" March 5, 1835, aged 78. 




" August 23, 1828, aged 60. 
" March 28, 1844, aged 65. 
Joined M. E. Church, South, 1846 ; 






Elijah Hedding 


died March 6, 1867, aged 76. 
Died April 9, 1852, aged 72. 
Joined M. E, Church, South, 1846 ; 






died March 1, 1871, aged 77. 
Died December 16, 1835, aged 47. 

" Feb. 9, 1858, aged 69. 

" Sept. 2, 1874, aged 80. 
Resigned 1852 ; died March 22, 1865, 

aged 68. 
Died Sept. 18, 1876, aged 69. 

" July 13, 1882, aged 80. 

" June 18, 1884, aged 73. 

" Dec. 20, 1871, aged 59. 

" April 25, 1879, aged 73. 

" April 18, 1863, aged 54. 

" May 23, 1871, aged 59. 

" March 22, 1870, aared 60. 

" April 6, 1870, aged 62. 

" Jan. 30, 1875, aged 63. 




















Davis W. Clark 






John W. Roberts* 




Died Sept. 2, 1887, aged 70. 






Died Nov. 22, 1884, aged 60. 










Died Jan. 3, 1880, aged 59. 
" May 17, 1883, aged 72. 


Jesse T. Peck 










Erastus 0. Haven 

William X. Ninde 


Died Aug. 2, 1881, aged 61. 


John M Walden 




Willard F. Mallalieu 








William Taylor* 
































* 


ilissionary 


Bishop. 



102 



THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 



GROWTH OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



Year. 


Traveling 
Preachers. 


Local 
Preachers. 


Members and 
Probationers. 


1773 


10 

17 

19 

24 

36 

29 

49 

42 

54 

57 

82 

83 

166 

266 

293 

287 

400 

540 

688 

695 

904 

1,272 

1,642 

2,200 

2,981 

2,263 

4,621 

3,841 

4.513 

5,877 

6,987 

6,821 

8,481 

10,242 

10,923 

12,096 

11,349 

12,802 


' 4,935 
8,087 
5,191 
5,767 
6,718 
8,188 
8,205 
9,899 
11,964 
12,881 
12,555 
12,026 
13,436 


1,160 


1774 


2.073 


1775 


3,148 


1776 


4,921 


1777 


6,968 


1778 

1779 


6,095 

8,577 


1780 


8,504 


1781 


10,539 


1782 


11,785 


1783 


13,740 


1784 


14,988 


1788 ... 

1792 


37,354 
65,980 


1796 


56,664 


1800 


64,894 
113,134 


1804 


1808 


151,995 
195,357 
214,235 


1812 

1816 


1820 


259,890 




328,523 


1828.. . 


421,156 




548,593 


1836 


650,678 


1840 


580,098 


1844 


♦1,171,356 


1848 


639,066 


1852 


728,700 




800,327 


1860 


990,447 




928,320 


1868 


1,255,115 




1,458,441 
1,580,559 
1,742,922 
1,769,534 
2,093,935 


1876 




1884 


1888 


1892 


2,292,614 



Subsequent decrease occasioned by withdrawal of Southern members. 



WORLD-WIDE CONQUESTS. 103 



IX. 

WORLD-WIDE CONQUESTS. 

1. First Ecumenical Conference. — The thought 
of gathering the hosts of Methodism in Ecumenical 
Conference was first suggested in the General Confer- 
ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church at its session 
in Baltimore in 1876. A committee was appointed, 
correspondence was opened with the various Methodist 
bodies, and as the result the " first Ecumenical Meth- 
odist Conference " was held in City Road Wesleyan 
Chapel, London, in September, 1881. Twenty-six sepa- 
rate bodies were represented by four hundred delegates. 
The occasion was one of great interest. We give a few 
extracts from the press as indicative of the impression 
made upon the English people: 

"The greatest religious reformation of modern times 
is unquestionably that wrought by the Methodist de- 
nomination. A century and a half ago religious fervor 
in England, and we might almost say religion itself, had 
well-nigh died out. If we wish to know what Wesley- 
anism has done for England — we might say for the 
world — the Methodist Ecumenical Conference now be- 
ing held in London will answer that it has wrought the 
greatest of all religious reformations, and has won 
millions of souls to the kingdom of Christ." — Tlie 
Christian Union. 

"The Methodist Ecumenical Conference has well 



104 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

deserved its name. The gathering of delegates has 
been in the widest sense representative. Not only have 
ministers and laymen come from all the principal coun- 
tries in the world, but they have also come from such 
less familiar places as Yokohama, Foo-Chow, Liberia, 
and Naini Tal. Dark and tawny skinned delegates 
have been present in considerable numbers and have 
taken an active part in the proceedings. The Method- 
ist story is only one further illustration of the truth 
that enthusiasm is one of the conquering forces of the 
world." — The Daily News [London). 

" Wesleyanism is a plant of vigorous growth. Trans- 
planted to a foreign soil it adapts itself to new condi- 
tions and takes on new characters without losing its spe- 
cific identity. The strength of Wesleyanism is seen in 
the fact that it has survived the shock which would have 
destroyed a weaker system. The glory of Wesleyanism 
is seen in the fact that there is no longer a schism. The 
separate function and mission of each of these bodies is 
acknowledged by all the others, and the various Meth- 
odist sections now take friendly counsel with each other 
for the promotion of the common good." — The Man- 
chester Examiner. 

The topics discussed, the character of the papers read, 
and the deep interest which was taken in all the pro- 
ceedings gave evidence that Methodism had not lost 
either its fervor or its aggressive spirit. 

2. Second Ecumenical Conference.— Such was 
the happy result of the first Ecumenical Conference of 
Methodism that provision was made for holding another 
similar gathering in the United States. Accordingly 
the 



WOE LD- WIDE CONQUESTS. 105 

vened in the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church, 
Washington, D. C, on Wednesday, October 7, 1891, at 
10:30 a. m. Five hundred delegates represented the 
various Methodist bodies. Again were the triumphs 
of Methodism made manifest by the evidences of in- 
crease in numbers and zeal. Two topics were kept prom- 
inent. These were the consolidation of the forces of 
Methodism and the purpose to reach the great masses 
of the cities, which has found expression in the " For- 
ward Movement." The discussion on the topic " Chris- 
tian Cooperation" was perhaps the occasion of more 
interest than any other. Bishop R. S. Foster, of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, speaking on this topic, 
said: 

" When I go before God, when I consult my con- 
science, when I think of the influence that arises from 
our separation, and when I think of the influence that 
might arise from our union, I can find no reason why 
at least we should not so far be eye to eye as to come 
together like brothers well beloved and shake each 
other by the hand and look each other in the eye, and 
talk to each other out of the heart, and pray together 
before God that he will soon send upon us wisdom, so 
that in some way the deplored separation might be 
healed and that, united together, we might take posses- 
sion, as we are able to do, of the North and of the 
South of this great land." 

These and similar remarks by others were enthusias- 
tically received. It is noteworthy that our colored breth- 
ren were the first to move in the matter of consolida- 
tion. The " Forward Movement" was ably represented 
by Rev. Hugh Price Hughes and Rev. T. B. Stephenson, 



106 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

of London, as also by the wife of the former and the 
daughter of the latter, who are zealous workers in this 
effort to reach the unchurched masses of the cities. 
Large audiences were stirred by the thrilling accounts 
of their labors and successes, and similar movements are 
hoped for in this country under the leadership of the 
societies which constitute the " City Evangelization 
Union." The missionary work of Methodism was thus 
represented in an address by Rev. W. J. Townsend, of 
the " Methodist New Connexion," England : 

" The work of Methodism in the heathen world to-day 
comprises, in the East, missions in China, Japan, India, 
Ceylon, and the hermit nation of Corea; in the West, 
the West Indies, the American Indians, South America, 
Honduras, and the Bahamas; and, between these, South 
and Central Africa. In China six Methodist communi- 
ties are engaged and one is just entering, spreading up 
to the great wall on the north, down to Canton and 
Hong Kong in the south, and to Hankow in the in- 
terior, comprising 213 stations, 118 foreign missionaries, 
597 native helpers, 6,626 members, 5,035 scholars. In 
Japan four Methodist missions are established, and sus- 
tain 50 stations, 58 foreign missionaries, 182 native 
helpers, 4,547 members, 4,875 scholars. In Corea one 
denomination recently entered has five missionaries la- 
boring there. In India two Methodist bodies are at 
work, which have secured 189 stations, 182 foreign mis- 
sionaries, 2,606 native helpers, 10,065 members, 63,568 
scholars. In Ceylon one Methodist church is carrying 
out operations, which has 81 stations, 17 missionaries, 
1,585 native helpers, 4.537 members, 20,785 scholars. 
In Africa seven Methodist societies have entered, which 



WORLD-WIDE CONQUESTS. 



107 



have 121 stations, 52 missionaries, 2,319 native helpers, 
24,094 members, 14,492 scholars. Among the North 
American Indians two Methodist denominations are 
working, with 128 stations, 61 foreign missionaries, 129 
native helpers, 8,127 members, 2,946 scholars. In the 
West Indies there are two Methodist bodies, of which 
returns only from one are to hand, comprising 10 sta- 
tions, 9 foreign missionaries, 53 native helpers, 3,403 
members, 2,172 scholars. In South America one society 
is at work, which has 67 stations, 33 foreign mission- 
aries, 182 native helpers, 1,165 members, 2,466 scholars. 
In Honduras and the Bahamas there is one society, 
which has 13 stations, 17 foreign missionaries, 694 na- 
tive helpers, 5,360 members, 5,243 scholars. These 
numbers present totals of 872 stations, 547 foreign mis- 
sionaries, 8,347 native ministers and helpers, 67,924 
members, 123,580 scholars in day or Sunday schools." 

At the Council of 1881 the forces of Methodism were 
estimated at 32,652 traveling preachers, 89,292 local 
preachers, 5,000,000 members, and an attendance on the 
ministry of the Church estimated at 19,000,000. The 
growth in the decade will be seen by the following fig- 
ures reported to the Council of 1891: 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 





> a 


u 

CO 
H-1P- 


1 

6 


be 

- - t 

i -■ I 


U 

1 
1 


c ° 


i 


i 

o 

V 


l 

< 


Europe 


4,488 

602 

365 

39,042 

786 


39,74? 

356 
2,14f 
51,578 

5,375 


15.5S4 
326 
571 

57,465 

3,250 


3,503 

34 

1,264 

2,138 


915,896 

35,314 

77,234 

5,382,375 

93,140 


14,405 
282 
450 

62,323 

3,828 


243,748 
1,944 
2,669 

593,246 

19,785 


1,781,612 

47,430 


4,212,601 
118.968 




28,267 295.376 




4,579,539 
197,314 


19,784,293 


Australasia and Pol- 


488,133 




Total 


45,283 


99,203 


77,196 


6,939 


6,503,959 


81,288 


861,392 


6,634,162 


24,899,421 



108 THE MAKCH OF METHODISM. 

We may here conveniently take a survey of the 
general field. We have followed Wesleyan Methodism 
in Great Britain to the death of Wesley in 1791. In 
taking note of the subsequent progress we are obliged 
to chronicle divisions which might have been avoided 
by more charitable and less arbitrary dealing with some 
of the ministers. In 1797 the "Methodist New Con- 
nexion " was formed as the result of the expulsion by 
the Conference of Alexander Kilham, growing out of 
discussions in regard to lay representation and the ad- 
ministration of the sacraments. In 1810 William 
Clowes and others were expelled for promoting camp 
meetings. The " Primitive Methodist Church " was 
the outcome. In 1815 the " Bible Christian Society" 
was formed as the result of the expulsion of William 
O'Brien for what was deemed irregular work. In 1828 
the "Wesleyan Protestant Church" was formed; in 
1836 the " Wesleyan Methodist Association." By far, 
however, the most painful and disastrous dissension was 
that of 1849, when the society known as the "Wes- 
leyan Reformers " was organized. This was again the 
result of expulsions because of a heated controversy 
over the supposed dictation of the old ministers. It 
cost the Church many years of toil to regain the ground 
lost at this time. In 1857 a union was effected between 
the Wesleyan Methodist Association and the Wesleyan 
Reformers under the name of the " United Methodist 
Free Churches." A few of the Wesleyan Reformers 
are still known as the "Wesleyan Reform Union." 
Though divided in organization these bodies are all 
" Methodistic " in doctrine. An important event in the 
Wesleyan body was the formation in 1877 of a lay Con- 



WORLD-WIDE CONQUESTS. 109 

ference to act in conjunction with the legal Conference 
of one hundred ministers; certain subjects are reserved 
for the ministerial Conference and others (chiefly of a 
financial character) for the mixed Conference. We 
make some extracts from an essay read by Rev. D. J. 
Waller, D.D., of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, at 
the second Ecumenical Council on "The Present Status 
of Methodism in the Eastern Section: " 

" In England the Established Church has the highest 
status in regard to numbers, wealth, and social position. 
The Methodist Churches hold a status next to the Estab- 
lished Church. There are 14,475 chapels, 4,028 minis- 
ters, 39,599 local preachers, 184,738 members, and prob- 
ably not fewer than 3,000,000 adherents. The Wes- 
leyan Methodists have accommodations for 2,156,209 
sittings — about four times the number of church mem- 
bers returned. Estimating the other Methodist com- 
munities in the same proportion, the number of sittings 
in their places of worship is considerably over 3,000,000. 
It is a fact worth noting that the number of Sunday 
scholars in the Methodist Sunday schools is about the 
same as those in the day schools in the Church of Eng- 
land. The Wesleyans have taken a larger share than 
any other branch of the Methodist family in providing 
day schools. They have 840 schools with nearly 200,000 
scholars. There is a considerable number of Methodist 
middle-class schools and high schools in which a superior 
education is given. Of the Leys School at Cambridge, 
of which Dr. Moulton is principal, it is said that it has 
solved the problem as to the possibility of reconciling 
Methodist training with the breadth and freedom of 
English public school life. Kingswood and Woodhouse 



110 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

Grove Schools, established for the ' sons of the prophets,' 
have also contributed in a remarkable degree to extend 
the influence of Methodism. Many in the front ranks of 
the professional, literary, and political walks of life are 
indebted to these schools. There is one other educa- 
tional work which must be mentioned, for it has ex- 
tended Methodist influence far beyond the community 
with which it is specially identified. I refer to the 
establishment of children's homes and orphanages. 
This Christlike service is associated with the name of 
Dr. Stephenson, President of the British Wesleyan 
Conference, and the institution with its several branches 
stands as a monument of his life's work. The Master's 
broadest seal has been put upon missionary work. 
Foreign missions show by far the largest increase dur- 
ing the past ten years in the number of ministers, of 
lay agents, of church members, and of children in the 
Sunday and day schools. The South African Confer- 
ence has been formed since the last Ecumenical Confer- 
ence. In 1881 the number of church members for 
South Africa was 18,645 ; the number at present, in- 
cluding 10,515 on trial, is 47,221. The West Indian 
missions have been formed into two Conferences, and, 
including the Bahamas, the numbers have increased 
from 47,411 to 59,454. In Scotland the ground was oc- 
cupied by the Presbyterian churches. The numerical 
success of Methodism has been inconsiderable, but, on 
the other hand, the indirect effect of the spirit and 
teaching of Methodism has been very great and bene- 
ficial. In Ireland the increase in the number of church 
members is only 5.8 per cent, but during the decade 
there has been a decrease in the population of nine 



WORLD-WIDE CONQUESTS. 



Ill 



per cent. But the fruit of Irish Methodism is to be 
found -in many lands, and especially in the United 
States. From the time when Philip Embury landed in 
New York there has been a constant stream of im- 
migration from Ireland to the lands on this side the 
Atlantic. Ireland has enriched the Methodism of the 
world. French Methodism alone shows a decrease, but 
the circumstances have been exceptional and the difficul- 
ties enormous. In France, however, the tide has turned, 
and this year there is an increase, including those on 
trial, of about' one hundred and fifty. They have entered 
upon an evangelistic missionary career which is full of 
promise." 

The Methodist Episcopal Church is represented on 
the Continent of Europe by missions of which the fol- 
lowing is a summary: 



Members and 


Sunday School 


Probationers. 


Scholars. 


10,580 


11,751 


6,392 


14,127 


16,392 


16,682 


5,104 


5,244 


2,499 


3.068 


171 


232 


1,070 


583 



Germany ... 
Switzerland. 

Sweden 

Norway 

Denmark — 

Bulgaria 

Italy 



The work in Australia was begun by the formation 
of a class on the 6th of March, 1812. One of the class 
leaders was a young Irishman who had been sentenced 
to transportation, but who by the labors of faithful 
Methodists had been converted in his cell. In zealous 
labors he vindicated the genuineness of his conversion. 
Samuel Leigh was sent out from England by the Home 
Missionary Society in 1815. Walter Laury was sent 
to his aid in 1818. "In 1820 a mission was projected 



112 THE MAKCH OF METHODISM. 

among the natives of Australia and Polynesia. Laury 
wrote home for missionaries. ' From us,' he said, ' in 
a few years I expect to see them rally forth to those 
islands which spot the sea on every side of us — the 
Friendly Isles, the Fijis, New Hebrides, New Cale- 
donia, New Zealand, New Georgia ; and then to the 
north again, very contiguous to us, are the islands of 
New Guinea, New Ireland, Celebes, Timor, Borneo, 
Gilolo, and a great cluster ol thickly inhabited mission- 
ary fields ; but we want more missionaries.' Ever since 
his predictions have been rapidly becoming history." 

Referring to the Australasian Wesleyan Methodist 
Church, Rev. D. J. Waller in his essay said there has 
been in ten years an increase of thirty-four per cent in 
ministers, of twenty per cent in church members, and 
of twenty-one per cent in Sunday scholars. These re- 
turns include the South Sea missions, and they are 
greatly affected by the troubles and persecution in 
Tonga. In 1884, prior to the secession, the statistics 
for Tonga showed, members, 7,336, and attendants on 
public worship, 18,500. The figures in 1890 were, mem- 
bers, 875, and attendants, 2,241. The dark days, it is 
believed, are now over, and a large increase is antici- 
pated. It is reported that at the request of King 
George the Rev. James Egan Moulton has returned to 
Tonga, and that in opening the Tonga Parliament the 
king remarked : " On no account let there again arise 
dissension among the churches." Rev. William Mor- 
ley, speaking of the secession in Tonga, said : " These 
seven thousand people are Methodists still. They call 
themselves the ' Free Church of Tonga,' but they be- 
lieve the same Methodist doctrine and sing the same 



WORLD-WIDE CONQUESTS. 113 

hymns. They keep up their class meetings and their 
Conferences, and we trust again to see one Methodist 
Church there." 

Coming back nearer to home we take note of Meth- 
odism in Canada. As early as 1780 a Methodist local 
preacher named Tuffy preached in Quebec. In 1784, 
at the " Christmas Conference," Freeborn Garrettson 
and James O. Cromwell volunteered their services and 
were appointed by Dr. Coke to Nova Scotia. In 1791 
William Losee was regularly appointed by the New 
York Conference to Kingston, and from this year is 
dated the epoch of Methodism in Canada. " Those 
were days of glorious revivals, of divine visitation, of 
powerful conversions, of heroic endurance, and of glo- 
rious success. A nobler, braver, or more sacrificing 
class of men are not to be found to-day than were the 
rank and file of the first Methodist preachers that came 
to Canada." 

In 1831 the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada 
was formed by union with the British Conference. The 
Methodist Episcopal Church maintained a separate ex- 
istence. Subsequently the New Connexion Methodist 
Church, the Primitive Methodist, and the Bible Chris- 
tian Churches were introduced by immigration from 
Great Britain. It has been the good fortune of our 
Canadian brethren. under the divine impulse which 
prompts to unity to give the most complete exhibition 
of the practicability of the consolidation of Methodistic 
forces which has yet been given to the Church. 

In 1874 a union was formed between the "Wesley- 
an " and the " New Connexion " bodies, taking the 
name of the "Methodist Church of Canada." It was 



114 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

in 1883, however, that the basis was agreed upon for the 
union of all the branches of Canadian Methodism, and 
the " Methodist Church " commenced its work on the 
first day of June, 1884. The doctrinal basis is the same 
as that of universal Methodism. There is a quadrennial 
General Conference, composed of an equal number of 
ministerial and lay delegates. The laity are also repre- 
sented in the Annual Conferences ; one or more general 
itinerant superintendents are elected for a period of 
eight years ; the Annual Conferences choose their own 
presidents ; the appointments are made by a committee 
composed of the superintendents of districts and one 
ministerial representative elected by the mixed district 
meeting. The united Church is very prosperous. It is 
numerically the largest Protestant Church in the Do- 
minion of Canada. Missionary and educational work 
are amply provided for; there are fourteen higher edu- 
cational institutions; there is invested in two publishing 
departments $275,000, with an annual business of 
$400,000; there are 3,000 Sunday schools with 29,000 
teachers and 232,000 scholars. 

3. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South. — 
Rev. Bishop C. B. Galloway, D.D., of this body, speak- 
ing for Methodism in the South at the second Ecumen- 
ical Council, said: "In the South every sixth soul is a 
Methodist — the largest relative Methodist population 
in the United States. In the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, alone we have 2,218,561 members. I 
mention with grateful pleasure the healthy growth of 
Methodism in our cities. During this century, from 
1790 to 1890, the urban population of the United States 
increased from 3.35 per cent to 29.12 per cent. With 



WORLD-WIDE CONQUESTS. 115 

very few exceptions our Methodism has not only kept 
pace with but exceeded the increase of the urban pop- 
ulation. But while our growth has been gratifying in 
the cities our advance has been majestic in the rural 
districts. There we have won our greatest triumphs — 
there may be found our crown of glory. In relation 
to intemperance our last General Conference adopted 
with enthusiasm a report which contained these words: 
' We are opposed to all forms of license of this ini- 
quity, whether the same be " high " or " low." It cannot 
be put so " high " that the prayers of God's people for 
its suppression will not rise above it, nor so " low," 
though it makes its bed in hell, that the shrieks of the 
souls lost through its accursed agency will not descend 
beneath it.' Already over one half of the total area of 
the South is under prohibition in the form of local 
option. Southern Methodism has made a history in 
the cause of missions among the Negroes that never 
can be forgotten. In 1861 we had over two hundred 
thousand colored members. Our interest in them has 
not abated; our responsibility has not ended. We are 
committed as strongly to their elevation to-day as ever, 
and Providence is opening effectual doors for us to 
enter. There has been expended over half a million 
dollars in church extension work in the past eleven 
years, building, as we did last year, one new church for 
every nineteen hours in the three hundred and sixty- 
five days. We are carrying the Gospel to Japan, 
China, Brazil, Mexico, and the Indians. There is an 
educational revival among us. We are building and 
endowing schools as never before. Our contributions 
to literature have not been many or massive. We 



116 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

have been too busy doing the work of evangelists to 
write books; yet we have done something, and our con- 
tributions are daily increasing. We have given some 
honored names to Methodist literature, whose works 
have permanent value. One fact is noticeable, if not 
ominous, among us — a growing relative decrease in the 
number of local preachers. In Southern Methodism 
we have 6,336 local preachers and 5,050 itinerant 
preachers — an increase of only 498 local preachers in 
the decade, while the itinerant ministers increased 
1,036. It may be that wiser and special effort should 
be directed to the lay agencies and activities of our 
Methodism. Reliance solely upon the pastors will re- 
verse the history of a century. I believe our cause is 
to continue. So long as we remain a witnessing people 
we will be a people, 

' Our flag on every height unfurled, 
And morning drum beat round the world.' " 

Speaking on " The Present Status of Methodism in the 
Western Section, " Bishop Fowler, of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, said: "Standing here this hour we 
cannot but turn our faces toward yonder neighboring 
city, so beautiful, so full of Christian homes and hap- 
piness, fit companion for this city — this the most beauti- 
ful city on the globe. And we cannot avoid contrast- 
ing that hour of one hundred and seven years ago with 
the present hour. What a picture greets us out of that 
day ! It can be shown on a small canvas. One Con- 
ference, 83 preachers, and only 14,988 members in 
America. About forty of the Conference were young 
men or boys. They had boundless energy, burning 



WORLD-WIDE CONQUESTS. 



117 



hearts, blazing tongues, luminous faces, and were led 
by great leaders. Then there was but one Methodist 
denomination and only one Annual Conference. To- 
day there are sixteen denominations of Methodists. 
The one Conference has multiplied into about three 
hundred and the 83 traveling preachers into about 
34,555, besides 30,000 local preachers. The 14,988 
members have multiplied into about 5,166,976, with 
5,000,000 Sunday school children and a following of 
over 20,000,000 souls in the republic. Methodism 
crossed the brook into this century leaning on a solitary 
staff. She will cross over out of the century with more 
than two bands besides flocks and herds and camels 
and asses; for she has about 56,335 churches and about 
15,000 parsonages, with church property worth more 
than $200,000,000." 

METHODISTS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Denominations. 


Ministers. 


Communi- 
cants. 


Methodist Episcopal 


14,792 

5,050 

3,807 

3,050 

1,455 

1,800 

1,441 

1,227 

623 

300 

100 

700 

30 

65 

115 


2,283,154 




1,213,511 
462,395 






420,223 


United Brothers 


199,709 


Colored Methodist Episcopal 


174,024 


Methodist Protestant 


148,416 




150,234 


United Brethren (Old Con.) 


50,582 




20,000 




4,000 




22,861 
5,000 
5,517 




Primitive Methodists 


Union American Methodist Episcopal Colored 

Union African Methodist Protestant 


3,935 
3,415 






Total 


34,555 


5,166,976 



118 THE MAKCH OF METHODISM. 



X. 

ELEMENTS OF POWER. 

" Is it not a truth that Methodism is the greatest 
fact in the history of the Church ? " Thus queries Rev. 
L. Tyerman in his introduction to his Life of Johri 
Wesley, and, reviewing its wonderful progress, re- 
marks: "Here we have an immensely ramified Church 
organization, everywhere preaching the same moment- 
ous doctrines and aiming at the same great purpose. 
A day never passes without numbers of its converts be- 
ing admitted into heaven, and without many a poor 
wayward wanderer being brought by it into the fold 
of Christ on earth." 

Let us, then, in a spirit not of boasting, but of hum- 
ble gratitude, inquire what are the elements of power 
which have given to Methodism its remarkable success, 
so that the generations following, catching the same 
spirit, may push forward its conquests 

" Till earth's remotest nations 
Have learned Messiah's name." 

1 . Spirit and Aim. — At the beginning of these out- 
lines we endeavored to trace the characteristics of the 
primitive Church. We shall now seek to show, at the 
risk of some repetition, that the spirit and aim of Meth- 
odism are in accord with the early Christian life and 
practice. 



ELEMENTS OF POWER. 119 

1. The primitive Church was a fervent Church. 
" They were all filled with the Holy Ghost; " "Fervent 
in spirit, serving the Lord." Methodism has been noted 
for its fervency, and this has been the outcome, not of 
mere passing emotion, but of an earnest zeal for the 
Master's cause; and let it be understood that there is 
room still for fervent song and prayer. Other denom- 
inations have been eager to acquire this spirit ; let us 
see to it that it does not die out in our congregations. 

2. The primitive Church was a revival Church; it 
made use of revival methods; it employed evangelists ; 
it exhorted ; it preached to the hearts and consciences 
of men, so that men were constrained to inquire, " What 
shall we do to be saved ?" The Methodist Church was 
the child of a revival, and she has perpetuated in her 
life the spirit which gave her birth. "Methodism is 
Christianity in earnest," said Chalmers, and an earnest 
Church can only live in the atmosphere of revival. 

3. The primitive Church was a working Church. 
Read through the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians, 
and see the apostle's idea of individual work. Methodism 
is organized on the basis of a working Church. From her 
traveling bishops down through presiding elders, itin- 
erant ministers, local preachers, exhorters, class leaders, 
trustees, stewards, Sunday school superintendents, and 
teachers, with multiplied agencies for each individual 
member, there is found w 7 ork for all who will do it, 
justifying the statement that " they are all at it and 
always at it." 

4. The primitive Church was a nurturing Church. 
Christ's injunction to Peter was to feed the sheep and 
the lambs, and the apostle enjoined the elders to " feed 



120 THE MAKCH OF METHODISM. 

the flock of God." Methodism has utilized agencies, 
such as the " class meeting " and the " love feast," pe- 
culiarly adapted to nurture the young Christian and to 
promote the growth of all her members. Especial pro- 
vision has been made for classes for baptized children, 
intended to " instruct them in the nature, design, and 
obligations of baptism, and the truths of religion neces- 
sary to make them wise unto salvation." For both 
young and old the class meeting and love feast have 
been schools of Christian experience, begetting closer 
fellowship, encouraging, guiding, and helping to lives 
of consecration in the Master's service. 

5. The primitive Church was an aggressive Chtirch. 
The apostle's missionary tours were planned with a 
view to carrying the Gospel to the very centers of idol- 
atry. Methodism has always kept her pickets well to 
the front, and wherever men have found a new field for 
toil the itinerant has found a new place to preach. 
"Methodism must be aggressive or perish; it was made 
for war, not peace; for motion, not rest; for advance, 
not retreat. The moment we become satisfied with 
holding our own we begin to die." (Porter, History of 
3Iethodis?n.) 

2. Doctrine. — Always holding with tenacity, in 
common with other orthodox denominations, the great 
fundamental truths of revelation, Methodism has, nev- 
ertheless, sought chiefly to emphasize and spread these 
three grand announcements of the Gospel, so eminently 
adapted to the wants of sinful humanity: 

1. A Free Salvation. — " God so loved the world that 
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believ- 
eth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 



ELEMENTS OF POWER. 121 

Free as against the dogma that " the rest of man- 
kind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable 
counsel of his own will whereby he extendeth or with- 
holdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sov- 
ereign power over his creatures, to pass by, and to or- 
dain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin to the 
praise of his glorious justice." ( Westminster Confession 
of Faith.) 

Free as against the heresy that money or good 
works are in any way the price to be paid for it. So 

free 

" Its streams the whole creation reach, 

So plenteous is the store ; 
Enough for all, enough for each, 

Enough for evermore." — C. Wesley. 

2. An Assured Salvation. — Assured as against 
the delusive sentiment that we may not know for our- 
selves that we are the heirs of salvation. The apostle 
John declares, and Methodism emphasizes, " We know 
that we have passed from death unto life." 

Assured by the added witness of the Holy Spirit 
w T ith ours. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with 
our spirit that we are the children of God." 

"His Spirit answers to the blood, 

And tells me I am born of God." — G. Wesley. 

3. A Full Salvation. — Fidl in that it is adequate 
for the chief of sinners. " This is a faithful saying, and 
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into 
the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." Thus 
declared the apostle Paul, and it has been the mission 
of Methodism to carry this cheering truth to many of 



122 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

the outcast of earth and give them courage to trust 
for salvation. 

Full in that it is adequate not only for the chief of 
sinners, but for all and every sin. " The blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 

"Faithful, if we our sins confess, 

To cleanse from all unrighteousness." — C. Wesley. 

Bishop J. H. Vincent has thus epitomized the doc- 
trines of the Methodist Episcopal Church : 

The Ten Doctrines of Grace. — 1. I believe that all 
men are sinners. 

2. I believe that God the Father loves all men and 
hates all sin. 

3. I believe that Jesus Christ died for all men to 
make possible their salvation from sin, and to make sure 
the salvation of all who believe in him. 

4. I believe that the Holy Spirit is given to all men 
to enlighten and to incline them to repent of their sins 
and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

5. I believe that all who repent of their sins and be- 
lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ receive the forgiveness of 
sin. [This is Justification.] 

6. I believe that all who receive the forgiveness of 
sin are at the same time made new creatures in Christ 
Jesus. [This is Regeneration.] 

7. I believe that all who are made new creatures in 
Christ Jesus are accepted as the children of God. [This 
is Adoption.] 

8. I believe that all w r ho are accepted as the children 
of God may receive the inward assurance of the Holy 
Spirit to that fa,ct. [This is the Witness of the Spirit.] 



ELEMENTS OF POWER. 123 

9. I believe that all who truly desire and seek it may- 
love God with all their heart and soul, mind and strength, 
and their neighbors as themselves. [This is Entire 
Sanctification.] 

10. I believe that all who persevere to the end, and 
only those, shall be saved in heaven forever. [This is 
the true Final Perseverance.] 

3. Organization. — 1. The Episcopacy. — The Method- 
ist Episcopal Church makes no arrogant claims for her 
bishops. At first known as " Superintendents," they 
have always been, as the title implies, the overseers of 
the flock. They are charged (under certain limitation) 
with the appointment of the ministers to their places of 
labor. They are required to travel at large in the Con- 
nection. They preside over the Conferences. Their 
lives have been pure, their labors abundant, and more 
than one of their number has fallen as the result of his 
toils. 

2. The Itinerancy. — Except in certain cases of mission- 
ary and educational work the bishops may not appoint a 
minister to the same work more than five years in ten. 
A traveling ministry is essentially of the primitive 
type. It is the boast of Methodism that every church 
has a minister and every minister a church. This sys- 
tem has proved of incalculable value in keeping an ad- 
vance guard well out on the front. 

3. Local Preachers. — The Methodist Episcopal Church 
has in her service about sixteen thousand local preachers. 
These are pious and devoted men who, still following 
their several vocations, have been deemed worthy to 
preach the Gospel. Their services were of incalculable 
value in the early period of the Church in this country, 

9 



124 THE MAECH OF METHODISM. 

when other denominations found it difficult to supply 
the needed workmen. Their ranks have contained many 
distinguished laborers, and, as we have already seen, 
the names of Philip Embury, Thomas Webb, and Robert 
Strawbridge are entitled to honor as pioneers in the 
field which has since yielded such grand harvests. 

4. Conferences. — These are four in number: Quarterly, 
District, Annual, and General. The latter has full 
power, under certain limitations, to legislate for the 
whole Church. The Quarterly Conference, representing 
the separate stations or circuits, and District Confer- 
ences composed of a number of contiguous stations, are 
presided over by the " presiding elders," who supervise 
the work in their respective districts and report its con- 
dition to the Annual Conference, which is composed of 
all the traveling preachers in its bounds. This Confer- 
ence has no legislative powers, but is charged with the 
oversight of its members and the work within its 
limits. In making the appointments the bishop is coun- 
seled by the presiding elders, who sit with him as an 
advisory board, or cabinet. An elaborate judicial sys- 
tem is provided, by which the right of appeal is secured 
to preachers and people. 

4. Peculiar Institutions. — 1. The class meeting has 
been very much misunderstood. It is in no sense a 
" confessional." It is a subdivision of the Church un- 
der the care of a " leader," whose duty it is to meet 
with and counsel its members. " The primary object of 
distributing the members of the Church into classes 
is to secure the subpastoral oversight made necessary 
by our itinerant economy." The " class meeting " is 
prominent where Methodism is the strongest. 



ELEMENTS OF POWER. 125 

2. The love feast is the reproduction of the Agapce of 
the primitive Church. By partaking together of the 
simple elements of bread and water an opportunity is 
afforded to testify of that love which makes all Christians 
one in Christ. 

In both of these meetings much importance is at- 
tached to the relation of Christian experience, which, 
indeed, Methodism has always insisted upon as not only 
a privilege, but a duty. In these meetings, as in the 
meetings for prayer, the voices of pious women are often 
heard, nor can the Church afford that these shall be 
silent, whose pleading tones have so often reached and 
reclaimed the wanderer. 



126 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 



XL 

AGGRESSIVE AGENCIES. 

1 . Missionary Society. — The first foreign mission- 
ary organization in the United States was the "Amer- 
ican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions," 
established in 1810. This was followed in 1814 by the 
Baptist Missionary Union. The Missionary Society of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church came next in order in 
1819. John Stewart, an inebriate colored man, had 
been converted in 1816 under the preaching of Marcus 
Lindsay, in Marietta, O. He became a missionary to 
the Indians. His successes, and the needs of this and 
other work, stirred the hearts of many in the Church. 
On April 5, 1819, a meeting was held in the Forsyth 
Street Church, New York city, at which time the Mis- 
sionary Society was organized. Bishop William Mc- 
Kendree was made president, Bishop Enoch George first 
vice-president, Bishop Robert R. Roberts second vice- 
president, and Rev. Nathan Bangs, New York Confer- 
ence, third vice-president. The constitution then 
adopted has since been amended several times to meet 
the changing conditions of the work. Rev. Nathan 
Bangs, D.IX, was appointed resident corresponding 
secretary by the General Conference of 1836. "More 
than any other he deserves to be considered the father 
of the missionary work of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church." He continued to hold this office until 1841, 



AGGRESSIVE AGENCIES. 127 

when he resigned to enter upon the presidency of Wes- 
leyan University. He was succeeded by Rev. Charles 
Pitman, with Rev. William Capers, D.D., and Rev. E. 
R. Ames, as assistants. Dr. Pitman died March, 1820, 
and was succeeded by Rev. John P. Durbin, D.D., who 
continued in office until 1872, and was retained as hon- 
orary corresponding secretary until his death in 1876. 
The Annual Report of 1876 says of him: "No name as 
yet identified with our history as a society is so memo- 
rable as that of Durbin, and justly so; for the inspira- 
tion of his soul and the peculiarly methodical character 
of his mind are stamped indelibly upon its every part." 
The office has since been filled by Rev. William L. Har- 
ris (subsequently elected bishop), Rev. Joseph M. Trim- 
ble, Rev. Robert L. Dashiell, Rev. Thomas M. Eddy, 
Rev. John M. Reid (later honorary secretary), and Rev. 
Charles II. Fowler, since elected bishop. The present 
(1892) corresponding secretaries are C. C. McCabe, D.D., 
J. O. Peck, D.D., and A. B. Leonard, D.D. 

The initial work of the Society was domestic mis- 
sions. It was not until 1832 that Melville B. Cox was 
sent to Liberia as the first foreign missionary of the 
Society. He arrived in Monrovia, March 7, 1833, and 
lived only until July 21. Before leaving America he 
had requested that if he should die his epitaph might 
be, " Let a thousand fall before Africa be given up." 
Under the care of Bishop Taylor, missionary bishop for 
Africa, and following his plan of self-supporting mis- 
sions, the work in this field, which was the first entered 
upon, has been extended into the very heart of the 
country, and is giving promise of great success. We 
have given on page 111 the work of the Society on the 



128 



THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 



Continent of Europe, and now add the additional for- 
eign fields: 



Countries. 


Members and 
Probationers. 


Sunday School 
Scholars. 


Africa 


3,194 

2,232 

5,367 

5?2 

2,022 

55 

25,023 

1,325 

2,284 

135 

3,705 

2,665 

73 


2,691 
2,587 
3,315 

675 
1,177 

100 


South America 




Central China 


North China 


West China 


North India. 


32 133 


South India 


7,663 

3,229 

150 


Bengal 






4,155 

1,797 


Mexico 


Corea 


76 


Total 


48,662 
42,654 


59,748 
51,617 


Add missions Continent Europe 




91,316 
289,395 


111,365 


Add Domestic Missions 


279,342 


Grand Total 


380,711 


390,707 



The receipts of the Society for 1820, the first year of 
its existence, were $823.04. In 1891 they were $1,251,- 
027.67. To this sum should be added the receipts of 
the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, $263,660.69; 
Woman's Home Missionary Society, $126,717.56 ; 
Bishop Taylor's Missions, $36,961.44; making a grand 
total of $1,678,396.96. 

The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society was organ- 
ized in 1869 and was formally recognized by the Gen- 
eral Conference in 1872. The Woman's Home Mis- 
sionary Society was organized in 1880, and was 
recognized by the General Conference of 1884. The 
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society "has had the 
honor of being the initial in many prominent move- 
ments, and was the first to establish woman's medical 
work in Asia, which has grown to such vast propor- 



AGGRESSIVE AGENCIES. 129 

tions. It built the first hospital and dispensary for 
women in China, India, and Corea, and sent the first 
woman physician to these fields. It now has under its 
care nine hospitals and dispensaries, and some forty 
thousand women are treated annually by Methodist 
physicians." 

The Woman's Home Missionary Society has invested 
in its forty-five model and industrial homes and school 
buildings, deaconesses, and city mission homes, more 
than $225,000. It has expended in its work, up to the 
present time, about $925,000. Allied to the missionary 
work is the "deaconess" work, which was recognized 
by the General Conference of 1888. The first deaconess 
home in the Methodist Episcopal Church of America 
was established in June, 1887, in Chicago. There are 
now twenty-six homes and seven hospitals in connection 
with the order, aggregating in value $150,000. The 
homes are training schools for women preparing for 
missionary work. 

2. The Sunday School Union was organized in 
1827. It was reorganized and recognized by the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1840. In 1844 the Conference ap- 
pointed " an editor especially and solely for the Sunday 
school department." Rev. Daniel P. Kidder was the first 
editor and corresponding secretary. He was succeeded 
in 1856 by Rev. Daniel Wise, D.D., who, in 1868, was 
followed by Rev. J. H. Yincent, D.D., who was elected 
bishop in 1888, and was succeeded by Rev. J. L. Hurl- 
but, D.D., the present incumbent. The Society seeks 
to aid in establishing Sunday schools at home and 
abroad, and to furnish them with the necessary requi- 
sites for carrying on the work. It also endeavors, 



130 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

through the agency of institutes, to prepare teachers 
for their work, and to elevate the standard of teaching 
in the Sunday schools. There are connected with the 
Methodist Episcopal Church 27,493 Sunday schools, 
303,581 officers and teachers, and 2,326,866 scholars. 
The income of the Society is about $25,000 per annum, 
and is far short of the demands made upon it. Nearly 
three thousand schools are aided each year by the 
Union. 

3. The Tract Society.— In 1833, in the city of New 
York, The Bible, Sunday School, and Tract Society 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church was formed. In 
1836 the General Conference recommended the dissolu- 
tion of our Bible Society, and directed the efforts of the 
Church toward the American Bible Society. When, in 
1844, the General Conference appointed an editor for 
Sunday school books, the editing of tracts was made a 
part of his work. In 1852 the "Tract Society of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church " was formed, and Dr. Abel 
Stevens was elected its corresponding secretary. The 
subsequent secretaries have been: 1854, Rev. Jesse T. 
Peck, D.D.; 1856, Rev. James Floy, D.D.; 1860, Rev. 
Daniel Wise, D.D.; 1872, Rev. J. H. Vincent, D.D.; 
1888, Rev. J. L. Hurlbut, D.D., who is the present in- 
cumbent. The Society has for its aim the dissemina- 
tion of religious literature in the form of tracts and pa- 
pers. Immigrants coming to our shores are reached by 
tracts in their own language. Distribution is made to 
prisons, poorhouses, hospitals, soldiers' barracks, and 
vessels in port. A beautiful weekly paper, called Good 
Tidings, has a circulation of about forty-three thousand 
among the colored people of the South. 



AGGRESSIVE AGENCIES. 



131 



4. The Board of Education was organized in 1868. 
It proposes to foster by all possible agencies the gen- 
eral educational interests of the Church, and to aid 
young men and women who are preparing to enter its 
ministry or to engage in its missionary work. Its re- 
ceipts in 1891 were about $63,000. It aided 1,102 stu- 
dents connected with 104 schools. Its secretaries : Rev. 
E. O. Haven, D.D., was elected corresponding secretary 
in 1872, and was succeeded in turn by Dr. Daniel P. 
Kidder, Dr. Daniel A. Goodsell, and Dr. Charles H. 
Payne. We give a summary of the educational insti- 
tutions connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church: 





o 


in 

II 


o 
H 


Students. 


Class of Institution. 


1 


a3 
"3 
S 
ft 


"3 
o 

■d 

9 

u 


Theological Institutions 

Colleges and Universities 


17 
54 
54 
9 
73 
207 

12 


$664,636 
9,979,450 
2,220,466 
1,140,000 
602,431 


$1,557,476 

10,230,433 

547,108 

187,000 

78,776 


863 
11,317 
5,102 

2,206 


6',850 
4,608 
1,284 
2,507 


863 

21,903 

10,524 

1,284 

5,885 


Female Colleges and Seminaries 
Foreign Mission Schools 




$14,606,983 
76,636 


$12,600,793 
14,476 


19,488 15 


40,469 
443 


Less Schools duplicated in The- 
ological list 


443 




Net total 


195 


$14,530,347 


$12,586,317 


10,459 


15,249 


40,026 



5. The Board of Church Extension (at first 
called the Church Extension Society) was organized in 
1864, and began work in the autumn of 1865. The 
Board was organized by the General Conference of 
1872. As its name implies, this Society is engaged in 
the work of planting new churches on our frontiers and 
in aiding feeble churches throughout the connection. 
The demands upon the Board have been very great, 



132 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

and its work has had a very rapid extension. There 
are two funds, the " general " and the " loan " fund. 

Up to November 1, 1891, the general fund aggregated 
$2, 82 8, 7 7 1.86. Of the personal gifts, $119,500 were 
directed by the donors — $250 for each — to the procure- 
ment of churches on the frontier. Up to November 1, 
1891, 477 churches had been erected in this way, the 
aggregate value of which was nearly a million dollars — 
an average of over $2,000 each. 

Up to November 1, 1891, a permanent capital has 
been brought into the loan fund amounting to $752,- 
418.08, and churches borrowing out of this fund have 
returned of the principal $748,608.48, so that churches 
were aided by loans to the aggregate of $1,501,026.57. 
The total amount received on both these funds for 
church extension, from the beginning to November 1, 
1891, is $4,329,798.43, and the number of churches 
aided, including a few parsonage properties, was, up to 
November 1, 1891, 7,937 — more than one third of the 
entire number owned by the denomination. 

The chief executive officers of this Society have been 
Dr. Munroe, Dr. Alpha J. Kynett, and Dr. William A. 
Spencer. 

6. The Freedmen's Aid and Southern Educa- 
tion Society was organized in 1866 as the "Freed- 
men's Aid Society," and confined its work, at first, to 
the freedmen alone. The General Conference of 1888 
gave it the name which it now bears, and its work is 
declared to be " for the mental and moral elevation of 
freedmen and others in the South, who have special 
claims upon the people of America, for help in the work 
of Christian education." The Society celebrated its 



AGGRESSIVE AGENCIES. 



133 



Quarter Centennial Jubilee during 1891. Its report to 
the General Conference of 1892 shows that it has under 
its control forty-two schools. Of these twenty-two are 
among colored people: one being theological, ten colle- 
giate, and eleven academic in grade, Among the white 
people there are three of collegiate and seventeen of 
academic grade. The number of students of all schools 
is 9,495. The total expenditures for twenty-five years 
have been over $3,000,000. The real estate controlled 
by the Society amounts to $1,800,000. 

The strength of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
the Southern States at the present time is shown by the 
following figures: 





Members. 


Churches. 


Valuation 


Parsonages. 


Valuation. 


Among whites 

Among colored 


269,372 
234,036 


3,062 
2,692 


$8,959,222 
3,062,782 


750 
643 


$1,199,702 
323,382 


Total 


503,408 


5,754 


$12,022,004 


1,393 


$1,523,084 



Its chief executive officers have been in turn Dr. R. S. 
Rust, Dr. J. C. Hartzell, and Dr. John W. Hamilton. 

7. The Book Concern. — Mr. Wesley very early 
gave attention to the publication of tracts and books. 
In this country the Conference of 1789 appointed John 
Dickins book steward. The work, then commenced 
with a debt, has now assumed vast proportions. The 
Book Committee reported to the General Conference of 
1892 an aggregate capital for the two houses at New 
York and Cincinnati of $3,130,956.09. The sales for 
the four years were $7,328,896.90, and the profits 
$1,121,506.34. Out of the profits there was ordered 
to be paid to the Annual Conferences dividends of 
$455,000 for the Superannuated Preachers' fund. 



134: THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

Some idea of the extent of the publications of the 
Book Concerns may be gathered from the average circu- 
lation of Sunday school periodicals published by them: 

Sunday School Journal 186,420 

Sunday School Classmate 223,700 

Sunday School Advocate 360,320 

Picture Lesson Paper 384,600 

Berean Beginner's Quarterly. 298.250 

Berean Intermediate Quarterly 1,462,500 

Berean Senior Quarterly 228,250 

Good Tidings 43,385 

The total number of pages of Sunday school periodi- 
cal literature issued during the year 1891 was 440,678, 
164. The present book agents at New York are Rev. 
Sandford Hunt, D.D., and Rev. Homer Eaton, D.D. 

8. Epworth League. — We have left to be noticed 
last the society which is destined to be one of the most 
effective agencies for good in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. The hope of the Church is in its young peo- 
ple. The Sunday school is the recruiting force of 
Methodism. Something has been needed to help to 
gather its young converts and prepare them for active 
work. The bishops, in their address to the General 
Conference of 1892, emphasize this; they say: "There 
had long been a real chasm between the adult Church 
and the Sunday School, which has not been adequately 
provided for. The young manhood and womanhood of 
the Church, so important a factor, seemed to lack a place 
and opportunity for the best use and development of 
their powers." Young people's societies have always 
been more or less prominent in the work of the Church, 
and in individual cases have been fruitful of good, not 



AGGRESSIVE AGENCIES. 135 

only as the center of revival influence, but in holding 
together young converts and training them for useful- 
ness in the Church. Some attempt had been made to 
bring our young people into a unity of plan and effort. 
Five societies had sprung into existence having similar 
ends in view, but employing somewhat different methods. 
These were the Young People's Methodist Alliance, the 
Oxford League, the Young People's Christian League, 
the Methodist Young People's Union, and the Young 
People's Methodist Alliance of the North Ohio Con- 
ference. Representatives of all these societies met in 
council, at Cleveland, O., on Tuesday and Wednesday, 
May 14 and 15, 1889. The desire for union was 
manifest. After an exhaustive discussion of the merits 
of the different plans it was unanimously resolved to 
merge all the societies into a new organization, to be 
known as the " Ep worth League." The working plan 
of the League is comprehended in what is known as the 
"Epworth Wheel." It provides for six departments of 
work, each under the charge of a committee. The 
chairmen of these committees, with the president, con- 
stitute the cabinet for the management of the League. 
The departments are : 1. Spiritual Work. 2. Mercy 
and Help. 3. Literary Work. 4. Social Life. 5. Cor- 
respondence. 6. Finance. The plan having been re- 
ported back to the various societies represented at 
Cleveland, it was cordially received, and the process of 
forming " Chapters " began. The growth has been 
marvelous. Within four years from its organization it 
numbered nearly 9,000 chapters and 500,000 members. 
Its organ, Ihe JEpviorth Herald, has a circulation of over 
60,000. The League was ably represented at the Gen- 



136 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

eral Conference of 1892, and was officially recognized by 
it, and a constitution for its government adopted. The 
constitution provides for a " Board of Control," con- 
sisting of fifteen members, appointed by the bishops, 
one of whom shall be a bishop, who shall be president 
of the Epworth League and the Board of Control. The 
officers consist of the president, four vice-presidents — 
at least two of whom shall be laymen — a general secre- 
tary, and a treasurer, who shall constitute the general 
League Cabinet, of which the editor of The Epworth 
Herald shall be a member ex-officio. The editor of The 
Epworth Herald is elected by the General Conference, 
and the general secretary by the Board of Control. 
The president of the Chapter must be a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, and approved by the 
Quarterly Conference, of which he then becomes a 
member. The editor of The Epworth Herald is Joseph 
F. Berry, D.D. At the date of writing this the gen- 
eral secretary has not been chosen. When the election 
takes place the League will be fully organized. The 
strength of the League, however, will not be in num- 
bers or in organization ; it will be in the consecration 
of its members to its important work. We quote 
again from the address of the bishops : " Wisely man- 
aged, it cannot fail to become a most efficient agency. 
A new army has entered the field full of the warm, 
fresh blood of youth; not only has it become well or- 
ganized and firmly established in the United States, but 
it has taken root in other lands in which our Church has 
been planted, and also in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, and in the Methodist Church of Canada. 
Blessings on the Epworth League ! " 



CONCLUSION. 137 



CONCLUSION. 

The limit of these pages has not permitted us to 
take note of many incidents and scenes which have been 
peculiar to the march of Methodism. Individual cases 
of the conversion of the depraved and hardened have 
been frequent. The names might have been given of 
many who from being a terror to the community in 
which they lived came to be peaceful citizens and loving 
laborers for their fellow-men. Great revivals which 
have spread over communities, bringing not only refor- 
mation in morals, but change in the very organization 
of society, have had only occasional mention. Space 
has not been found even to catalogue the names of men 
who, like Jackson and Beaumont, in England, and Sum- 
merfield, Maffit, Simpson, Bascom, Durbin, and Guard, 
in America, have thrilled great audiences with their 
eloquence, or melted them to tears with their plead- 
ings. The administrative talent of a host of men, 
such as Bunting, Stephenson, and Rigg, in England, 
and Hedding, Janes, and others, in America, must go 
unchronicled in these pages. The contributions to edu- 
cation and literature of great numbers of men eminent 
for their talents has had to be passed over. Movements 
such as that inaugurated by Bishop Vincent, at Chau- 
tauqua, and now extending over the land, can only be 
suggested. We have made no record of the self-sacri- 
ficing lives of men and women who have given time 



138 THE MARCH OF METHODISM. 

and money to the service of the Church, and thus made 
possible missions to the degraded, hospitals to the sick, 
and schools of learning for those preparing for the 
work of life. We have not been permitted to take 
even a survey of the labors of our later chief pastors, 
the bishops of the flock, who have not been less zealous 
than Wesley and Asbury, and some of whom have died 
as the direct result of their indefatigable toil. The 
closing scene of the General Conference of 1884 will 
not soon be forgotten by those who were privileged to 
be present. Bishop Harris, presiding, announced, and 
the Conference sang, the hymn beginning 

" All hail the power of Jesus' name." 

Bishop Wiley offered the closing prayer. Bishop Simp- 
son made the closing address. Touching were the ut- 
terances and tender were all hearts. Before the next 
meeting of the General Conference all -three of those 
bishops had passed away. Let us heed the admonition 
of Bishop Simpson in those closing words : "May we 
go forward from this time, dear brethren, to try to do 
more vigorous work than we have ever done. May we 
have the spirit of deep consecration. May we look for a 
more powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit. May we 
look for revivals all over our country until multiplied 
thousands shall be converted to God." 

Let us catch the inspiration of that noble layman, 
General Clinton B. Fisk, now gone to his reward, who, 
in the Centennial Conference of 1884, said : "American 
Methodism, with its flying troops, always on the skir- 
mish line, makes hot the hand-to-hand conflict with the 
forces of evil always in battle array, and to our feeble 



CONCLUSION. 139 

sense a phalanx never to be broken. Our Methodism 
must eagerly take the front and lead on to victory." 
" Forward " rings along the line, and 

"With lifted sword and waving crest 
Our Captain leads to conquering." 



"onward, then, ye people! 

join our happy throng, 
blend with ours your voices 

IN THE triumph-song; 

GLORY, LAUD, AND HONOR 
UNTO CHRIST THE KING, 

THIS THROUGH COUNTLESS AGES 
MEN AND ANGELS SING." 



10 



NDEX 



Abbott, Benjamin, 66, 67. 

Action of General Conference on 

Southern outrages, 92. 
Act of Uniformity passed, 19. 
Africa Conference, 90. 
African Methodist Episcopal Church 
formed, 80. 

Zion Church formed, 80. 
Aggressive Church, an, 130. 
Albigenses, the, 10. 
-Alienation, efforts to prevent, 43. 
Allen, Richard, 80. 

Alliance, Young People's Methodist, 89. 
America, first Methodist place of wor- 
ship in, 43. 
American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions, the, 126. 

Bible Society, the, 130. 

Methodism, needs met, 46, 

Sabbath Union, the, 91. 

University, the, 92. 

Wesleyan Church organized, 81. 
Ames, E. R., elected bishop, 83. 

missionary secretary, 127. 
Andrew, J. O., elected bishop, 81. 
Andrews, E. G., elected bishop, 85. 

ruling on the woman question, 85. 
Annals of New York Methodism 

quoted, 62, 70. 
Anuesley, Dr., 19. 

Annual Conferences of Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in the South, 84. 
Appointments to America, the first, 64. 
Archbishop of Canterbury, the, 36. 
Armiuian doctrines not a test, 38. 
Asbury, F., 64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 72. 
Assured salvation, 121. 
Augustine sent to England, 10. 
Australia, the work in, 111. 
Australasian Wesleyan Methodist 
Church, 112. 

Baker, O. C, elected bishop, 83. 
Baltimore, Asbury in, 65. 

Centennial Conference in, 87. 
Bands in the societies, 33. 



Bangs, Nathan, missionary secretary, 
126; president Wesleyan Univer- 
sity, 127. 
Baptist Missionary Union, the, 126. 
Bascom, H. B., 78. 
Beard, Thomas, first martyr, 39. 
Bell Inn at Gloucester. 24. 
Berry, J. F., editor, 136. 
Bible bigots, the, 15. 

Christian Society, 108. 

Society, the Methodist Episcopal, 
130. 
Bishop, first used, the title of, 90. 
Bishops the chief pastors, 138. 

list of, 101. 
Boardman, R., 62, 65. 
Board of Church Extension, 131. 

of Control, 136. 
Bohler, Peter, 27. 
Book Concern, Ezekiel Cooper in, 73. 

Centennial, 90. 
Book Concerns, 133, 134. 
Book, first American itinerant's, 64. 
"Book Room,' 1 the, 30. 
Boston, Whitefleld in, 38. 
Bowman, T., 84. 
Bradford, Joseph, 54, 57. 
Bristol, Conference at, 47, 51. 
Bunting, J., 59. 
Burns, F., bishop for Liberia, 83, 84. 



Calvinistic views of Whitefleld and 

Cennick, 38. 
Camp meetings, 76. 
Canada, Asbury visits, 71. 

forms a separate Church, 81. 

Methodism in, 113. 
Canterbury. See of, 11. 

Archbishop of, 36. 
Capers, W., 127. 
Cartwright, Peter, 77. 
Carvosso, William, 59. 
Catholic reaction, 12. 
Cennick, J., 34, 38. 
Centenary of American Methodism 84. 

of Book Concern, 90. 



142 



INDEX. 



Centennial of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, 85. 

Conference, the, 87. 
Changed lives of converts, 41. 
Charleston, mob in, 77. 

Whitefleld embarks from, 38. 
Charter House school, 21. 
Checks to Antinomianism, 43. 
Chinese question in General Confer- 
ence, 92. 
Christian Advocate, The, 80. 
Christian Library, Wesley's, 40. 
Christian Union, The, on the Ecu- 
menical Conference, 103. 
Christians, ten persecutions of, 8. 
Christmas Conference, the, 68, 69. 
Church Extension, Board of, 131. 
Churches, the, closed to theWesleys, 36. 
Church, South, organized, 82. 
Circuits and membership, first com- 
plete list of, 42. 
City Evangelization Union, the, 91, 106. 
City Road Chapel, 103. 
Clarke, D. W-, elected bishop, 84. 

Adam, 40, 58. 

quoted, 17, 49. 
Class meetings, 33, 124. 
Cleveland, O., representative council 

at, 89, 135. 
Closing scene of Conference, 1884, 138. 
Clowes, W., 108. 
Coke, T., 68, 70, 71. 

sends preachers to Canada, 113. 
Cokesbury College, 75. 
Colored members in the South, 92. 

Methodist Episcopal Church of Amer- 
ica organized, 85. 
Columbian Exposition, General Con- 
ference action on the, 93. 
"Conference," use of the term ex- 
plained, 45. 

of 1767, 43. 

of 1784, Wesley's letter to, 67. 

the first Methodist, 35. 

the first held in America, 65. 
Conferences, powers of the, 124. 
Consolidation of forces, 105. 
Constantine, edict of, 9. 
Constitution of the Church, 94. 
Conversion of a convict, 111. 
Cooke, Miss, and Sunday schools, 45, 
Cooper, E., 73. 

Cooperation, Bishop Foster on, 105. 
Countess of Huntingdon, 53. 
Cox, Melville B., missionary to Liberia, 

127. 
Creed, th« primitive, 7. 
Cromwell, J. O., sent to Nova Scotia, 

113. 
Cutler, Ann, consecrated life of, 59. 



Daily News, London, on the Ecumen- 
ical Conference, 104. 
Dark Ages, the, 9. 
Dashiell, R. L , missionary secretary, 

127. 
Date of origin of Methodism, 36. 
D'Aubigne" quoted, 9. 
Deaconess work, the, 89, 129. 
Debt, Wesley's scheme to free the 

chapels from, 43. 
Decline of true religion, 8. 
Decrees, the, 38. 
Deed of declaration, the, 45. 
Delamotte, missionary to America, 23. 
Delegated General Conference, the 

first, 80. 
Dickins, John, 76, 133. 
Discipline, sections 55-64, 94. 
Discussion of Calvinism, 43. 
Dissatisfaction among the preachers, 

45. 
Dissenters deprived of preferment, 13. 
Division of the Church, 82. 
Doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal 

Church, 122. 
Domination of Rome, England, under 

the, 11. 
Dougharty, G., 7. 
Dropping the disorderly, 41. 
Durbin, J. P., missionary secretary, 
127. 

Eastern Church, the, developed, 9. 

Section, status of Methodism in, 109. 
East Indies, Dr. Coke's mission to, 71. 
Eaton, Homer, 134. 
Ecumenical Methodist Conferences, 93, 

103, 104. 
Eddy, T. M., missionary secretary, 

127. 
Edict of Toleration, the, 9. 
Editor of Methodist books, 73. 

for Sunday school department, 129. 
Education, Board of, 131. 
Educational institutions, summary of, 

131. 
Edwards, Jonathan, awakening un- 
der, 61. 
Effects of Mohammedanism on the 
Church, 9. 
Whitefleld's work in America, 51, 
Emancipation Proclamation, the, 83. 
Embury, Philip, 61, 124. 
Emory, J., elected bishop, 81. 
England, Church of, in eightieth cen- 
tury, 13. 
Christianity in, 10, 
schools of, 14. 
English Methodism, 109. 
Episcopacy, the, 123. 



INDEX. 



143 



Epwoith Herald, The, 94. 

Hymnal, the, 17, 87. 

League, 89, 94, 134. 

noises, effect of the, 21. 

rectory, 16. 
Equal representation in General Con- 
ference, 90. 
Established Church in England, 109. 
Estrangement of the Wesleys and 

Whitefleld, 38. 
Evans, Dinah, 59. 
Exeter, N. H., Whitefleld in, 50. 
Experience, relation of Christian, 125. 
Extension of pastoral term, 84. 
Extent of the work in 1804, 75. 

Fell's Point, Baltimore, 65. 
Fervent Church, a, 119. 
Fetter Lane, Moravian Society in, 28. 
Fifteen, committee of, 100. 
First American Methodist Conference, 
65. 

colored bishop elected, 83. 

missionary collection, 42. 

sermon of Philip Embury, 62. 
Fisher, G. P., on Primitive Church 

methods, 7. 
Fisk, C. B., at Centennial Conference, 

138. 
Fisk, Wilbur, elected bishop, 81. 
FitzGerald, J. N., elected bishop, 90. 
Five o'clock a. M. preaching, 44. 
Flanders, Methodism in, 39. 
Fletcher, John, vicar of Madeley,43,51. 

Mary, 53. 
Floy, J., Secretary Tract Society, 130. 
Foreign mission fields, 128. 
Forsyth Street Church, Missionary So- 
ciety organized in, 126. 
Forward movement, the, 105. 
Foss, C. D., elected bisbop, 85. 
Foster, R. S., elected bishop, 85. 
Foundry, the, Moorflelds, 29. 
Fowler, C. H., 87, 127. 

address on status of the Church, 116. 
Fraternal relations with the Church, 

South, 85. 
Free Church of Tonga, the, 112. 
Freedmen's Aid and Southern Educa- 
tion Society, 132. 

resolution concerning, 87. 
Freedom of the will, the discussions 

on, 44. 
Free grace, Wesley preaches on, 38. 

Methodist Church formed, 83. 

salvation, a, 120. 
French Methodism, 111. 
Full salvation, a, 121. 
Funds of the Church Extension Board, 
132. 



Galloway, Bishop, C. B., on the Church, 

South, 114. 
Garrettson, Freeborn, 66, 67, 73. 
Gatch, Philip, 66, 67. 
General Conference in Baltimore, 1784, 
68, 69 ; of 1792, 74. 

Rules, the, 30. 

Survey, 108. 
George, Enoch, elected bishop, 80. 

Vice-President Missionary Society. 
126. 
Georgia, the Wesleys embark for, 23. 

the Wesleys return from, 27. 

Whitefleld visits, 37. 
Gibson, Dr., Bishop of London, 24. 
Gloucester, the Bell Inn at, 24. 
Goodsell, D. A., elected bishop, 90. 

Secretary Board of Education, 131. 
Good Tidings, 130, 
Goucher, Dr., on the Constitution of 

the Church, 94. 
Grand climacteric year of Methodism, 

44. 
Great movements in Methodism, 137. 
Green, historian, quoted, 11, 12, 14. 
Gregory I, pope, 10. 
Growth of Methodism, 1881-1891, 107. 

of the Church, 102. 

Hamilton, J. W., address at Centennial 
Conference, 88. 

Freedmen's Aid and Southern Edu- 
cation Society, 133. 
Hamline, L., elected bishop, 81. 

resigns, 83. 
Harris, Howell, 43. 

William L., 85, 127, 138. 
Hartley, imprisoned, 67. 
Hartzell, J. C, 133. 
Haven, Gilbert, elected bishop, 85. 

E. O., Corresponding Secretary 
Board of Education, 131. 
Head of the Church of England, 11. 
Heck, Barbara, 61. 
Hedding, Elijah, elected bishop, 80. 
Henry VIII, of England, 11. 
Herald, The Epworth, 135. 
Heroic period of Methodism, 58. 
Hibbard, Billy, 77. 
Hick, Samuel, 59. 
Historical preliminary, 5. 
Holy Club, the, 15. 
Horse Fair, Bristol, the first Methodist 

Chapel, 29. 
Hughes, Hugh Price, 105. 
Hundred, the Legal, 45. 
Hunt, Sandford, 134. 
Huntington, Countess of, Whitefleld 

chaplain to, 37. 
Hurlbut, J. L., 129, 130. 



144 



INDEX. 



Hurst, J. F., elected bishop, 85. 
Hussites, the, 10. 
Hymnal, a new, 85. 
the Epworth, 87. 

Ignorant clergy, 13. 

Important secession, 80. 

Impressment for the army, 39. 

Indian schools, collections for, 43. 

Ingham and Delamotte, 23. 

Innocent III, 11. 

Institutions adopted by Methodism, 

30. 
Ireland, Methodism in, 40. 

fruits of Methodism, in, 110. 
Irish Conference, the first, 71. 
Islington, Charles Wesley's curacy at, 

36. 
Itinerancy, the, 123. 
Itinerant preachers, the, 34. 

Jacob, on ecclesiastical polity, quoted, 

6. 
Janes, E. S„ elected bishop, 81. 
Japan Mission, 90. 
John Street Church built, 62. 
action of the society in, 70. 
Joyce, I. W., elected bishop, 90. 
Justin quoted, 7. 

Kidder, D. P., 129, 131. 
Kilham, Alexander, 108. 
King George, of Tonga, 112. 
King, John, from England, 64, 65. 
King John, of England, 11. 
Kingsley, Calvin, elected bishop, 84. 
Kingswood, Bristol, open-air preaching 

at, 29. 
Kingswood, "Wesley's school at, 29, 

109. 
Kirkham, Mr., of Merton College, 15. 
Kynett, A. D., 132. 

" Lady Huntington's Connection," 39. 
Laury, Walter, missionary, 112. 
Lay Conference, Wesleyan, 108. 

Delegation to General Conference, 
84. 

preaching, 34. 
Leaders of Methodism, 20. 
Leatherhead, Wesley's last sermon at, 

53. 
Lecky, quoted, 13. 
Lee, Jesse, 66, 72. 
Leeds, action of Conference in, 63. 
Legal Conference, the, 45, 57, 58. 
Leigh, Samuel, 111. 
Leonard, A. B., missionary secretary, 

127. 
Leys School at Cambridge, 109. 



Liberia Conference organized, 81. 

becomes Africa, 90. 

elects a bishop, 83. 

work in, 127. 
Limerick, Ireland, immigrants from, 

61. 
Lincoln, Abraham, responds to the 

Conference Committee, 83. 
Lincolnshire people, the, 16. 
Lindsay, Marcus, 126. 
Liquor traffic, the, 100. 
List of bishops, 101. 
Literary work of John Wesley, 55. 
Local Preachers, 123. 
London, Ecumenical Conference in, 
103. 

state of, in the eighteenth century, 14. 
Lord Macaulay's tribute to Wesley, 56. 
Losee, William, goes to Kingston, 113. 
Louisville, Ky., convention in, 82. 
Love feast, the, 33, 125. 
Lovely Lane Chapel, 68. 
Luther, Martin, 10. 

Macaulay, Lord, on John Wesley, 56. 
Mallalieu, W. F., elected bishop, 87. 
Manchester, Conference held at, 57. 
Manchester Examiner on the Ecu- 
menical Conference, 104. 
Martin Luther, 10. 
Masses, purpose to reach the, 105. 
Maxfield, Thomas, 34. 
McCabe, C. C, missionary secretary, 

127. 
McKendree, Bishop, 77, 79, 126. 
Members of First American Methodist 

Conference, 65. 
Membership in 1773, 65; 1774, 66 ; 1884, 

69. 
Memorable Conference, 1844, 81. 
Men of Talent in Methodism, 137. 
Merrill, S. W., elected bishop, 85. 
Methodism advances southward, 67. 

advent of, 14. 
Methodist churches in Canada, 113, 

Episcopal churches, 46, 69. 

movement, three leaders of the, 20. 

New Connexion, 108. 

Protestant Church, 81. 

schools in England, 109. 

societies, 28, 57. 
Methodists in the United States, 117. 
Metropolitan Church, at Washington, 

105. 
Ministers in New York Conference 

described, 76. 
Missionaries in Australia, 112. 
Missionary bishops authorized, 83. 

society organized, 126. 

work of Methodism, 106. 



INDEX. 



145 



Missions in Europe, 111. 

of English Methodism, 110. 
Mississippi, Asbury visits the, 71. 
Mohammedanism, its effects on the 

Church, 9. 
Moore, Henry, quoted, 20. 
Moravian Society, the, and the Wes- 

leys, 23, 28. 
Morgan, Mr., of Christ Church, 15. 
Morley, Rev. William, on the secession 

in Tonga, 112. 
Morris, T. A., elected bishop, 81. 
Moulton, Dr. J. E., 109, 112. 
Munroe, Dr., 132. 

National Church, a, 87. 
relation of Methodist Societies to the, 

57. 
Neely, T. B., referred to, 69. 
Negro Missions organized by Coke, 71. 
Netschmaun, David, Moravian bishop, 

23. 
Newburyport, Mass., death and burial 

of Whitefleld at, 50. 
Newcastle, first missionary collection 

taken at, 42. 
Thomas Beard, in the hospital at, 39. 
New Connexion Methodists, 58. 
Newman, J. P., elected bishop, 90. 
Newport, Whitefleld in, 38. 
New reformation, advent of a, 12. 
New World, causes of revival in the, 

61. 
New York city, Garrettson's death in, 

73. 
New York, Whitefleld in, 37. 
Ninde, W. X., elected bishop, 87. 
Nominally Protesant, the Church of 

England, 13. 
Nonconformists, the, 12. 
" Not Angles, but angels," 10. 
Nova Scotia, Methodism in, 46. 
Nurturing Church, a, 119. 

O'Brien, William, 108. 

Officers of the Missionary Society, 126. 

O'Kelly, James, withdraws from the 

connection, 75. 
Open-air preaching opposed, 36. 
Ordinations by Wesley, 68. 
Organic union, action on, 99. 
Organization, Primitive Church, 6. 
Outrages on colored members in the 

South, 92. 
Overton's John Wesley quoted, 23. 
Owen, Richard, early local preacher, 

63. 
Oxford, Bishop of, Wesley ordained by, 

22. 
Oxford, the Holy Club at, 15. 



Palatinate, devastation of, 61. 
Parliament abridges the power of the 

pope, 11. 
Pastoral term extended, the, 81. 
Patten, Chaplain, house of, 65. 
Payne, C. H., Secretary of Board of 

Education, 131. 
Peck, J. T., Secretary of Tract Society, 

130. 
elected bishop, 85. 
Pembroke College, Oxford, Whitefleld 

entered at, 25 
Persecution of early Christians, 8. 

preachers, 66. 
Philadelphia, first Conference held in, 

65. 
Whitefleld in, 37. 
Pilmoor, Joseph, 64, 65. 
Pitman, C, missionary secretary, 127. 
Pittsburg, Union formed in, 191. 
Plan of Pacification adopted, 58. 

Separation, the, 82. 
Polynesia, mission to, 112. 
Pope Gregory 1, 10. 
Pope Innocent III, 11. 
Porter's Histoi~y of Methodism quot- 
ed, 120. 
Potter, Dr., John and Charles Wesley 

ordained by, 22, 24. 
Preliminary, historical, 5. 
Presiding elder, office of, recognized, 

74. 
Presiding elders the bishop's cabinet, 

124. 
Pretender, the, and the Methodists, 

39. 
Primitive Church methods, 7. 
creed, 7. 
organization, 6. 
Methodist Church, 108. 
Prominent men in Methodism, 137. 
Protestant Church, a, 10. 
Protestantism established in England, 

11. 
Provision for a General Conference, 7. 

for preserving the Societies, 44. 
Publications of the Book Concerns, 134. 
Puritan spirit in England, 15. 

Quarterly tickets issued, 41. 
Queen Mary, reaction under, 12. 

Race question, the, 87. 
Rankin, Thomas, 65, 66. 
Receipts of Missionary Society, 128. 
Reformation of the Church, 10. 
Relation of Christian experience, 125, 
" Religious Societies " in England, 28. 
Response of President Lincoln to the 
Conference Committee, 83. 



146 



INDEX. 



Restoration, the, and the Nonconform- 
ists, 12. 

Restrictive rules, the, 79. 

Revival Church, a, 119. 

Revolution, the, impending, 66. 

Richardson, Hannah, 41. 

Richelieu's and Wesley's genius for 
government, 56. 

Richmond, Va., Asbury's last sermon 
and death in, 72. 

Rigging Loft, the, 62. 

Roberts, J. W., elected bishop for Li- 
beria, 84. 
Vice-President of Missionary Society, 

126. 
Robert R„ 80. 

Rome, bishops of, 9. 

Romish domination of England, II. 

Rubric of 1884, 69. 

Rust, R. S., 133. 

Sabbath Union, the American, 91. 

Sacramentarians, 15. 

Sacraments, administration of, 66, 67, 
69. 

Sail Loft in New York, the, 43. 

Schaff, Philip, quoted, 8. 

Scheme of Wesley to free the chapels 
from debt, 43. 

School at Kingswood, 29. 

Scotland, Methodism in, 110. 

Scott, Bishop, 83, 85. 

Seaman, Rev. S. A., quoted, 62, 70. 

Secessions, important, 80. 

Second Ecumenical Conference, 104. 

Self-sacrificing lives in the Church, 137. 

Self-supporting missions, 89. 

Selina, Countess of Huntington, 37. 

Shadford, George, 65, 66. 

Simpson, Bishop, 82, 138. 

Sixteenth Amendment, the, 98, 

Skepticism, Wesley's an age of, 21. 

Slavery question, the, 81. 

Society, the Church Extension, 131. 

Soule, Joshua, elected bishop, 80. 

South African Conference, 110. 

Southern States, the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in the, 133. 

Southey, Robert, quoted, 49. 

South, the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
114, 115. 

Spencer, Wm. A., 132. 

Spirit and aim of Methodism, 118. 

Spiritual power lacking in the English 
Church, 13. 

Statistics of Sundav schools, 130. 

Stephenson, Rev. T. B., 105. 

Stevens, Abel, Corresponding Secre- 
tary of Tract Society, 130. 
quoted, 21, 38, 41, 47, 55, 65, 73, 78. 



Stewart, John, Indian missionary, 126. 

St. Peter's College, Charles Wesley ad- 
mitted to, 24. 

Strawberry Alley, Baltimore, chapel in, 
65. 

Strawbridge, Robert, 63, 60, 124. 

Sunday opening of Columbian Exposi- 
tion, 93. 

Sunday schools established, 44. 

Sunday School Union, the, 129. 
statistics, 130. 

Superannuated preachers' fund, 133. 

Superintendents, the, 123. 

Survey of the field, 108. 

Taylor, William, bishop for Africa, 87. 

work in Africa, 127. 
Temperance leagues, 100. 
Temperance, position of the Church, 
South, on, 115. 

report of committee on, 87. 
Ten years of Methodism, 41. 
The Life of God in the Soul of Man, 

25. 
Theodore, primate of England, 11. 
Thoburn, J. M., bishop for India and 



Thompson, Edward, elected bishop, 

84. 
Tonga, troubles in, 112. 
Townsend, Rev. W. J., 106. 
Tract Society, the, 130. 
Tracts, Wesley's, 40, 
Transition Period, the, 57. 
Trimble, J. M., missionary secretary, 

127. 
True religion, decline of, 8. 
Tuffy, Mr., in Quebec, 113. 
Tyerman, Luke, quoted, 15, 21, 35, 39, 

55. 

Uniformity, the Act of, 19. 
United Church of Canada, 114. 

Methodist Free Churches, 108. 

Society, rise of the, 29. 
United States, proposed amendment to 

the Constitution of the, 98. 
University, the American, 92. 

Vasev, Thomas, 68. 

Vexed questions at the General Con- 
ference, 90. 
Vincent, J. H., elected bishop, 90. 

epitome of doctrine, 122. 

on Ep worth, 17. 

on Oxford Leagues, 88. 

Secretary Tract Society, 130. 

Sundav school department editor, 
129." 
Virginia, revival in, 66. 



INDEX. 



147 



Walden, J. M., elected bishop, 87. 

Waldenses, the, 10. 

Wales, " circulating" schools in, 14. 

Waller, D. J., 109, 112. 

Walsh, Thomas, 40. 

Warren, H. W., elected bishop, 85. 

Watch night service, the, 33. 

Watson, Richard, 58. 

Watters, William, 63. 

Waugh, Beverly, elected bishop, 81. 

Webb, Captain Thomas, 62, 65, 124. 

Wesleyan Methodist Association, 108. 

Protestant Church, 108. 

Reformers, 108. 

Reform Union, 108. 

University, 81, 127 
Wesley, Charles, 15, 24, 26, 36, 51. 

John, 15, 20, 26, 44, 46, 53, 55. 

John, vicar of Winterbourn, 18. 

Matthew. 19. 

Samuel, 16, 23. 

Susannah, 16, 17, 19, 49. 
Wesley family, the, 19. 
Western Church, development of the, 9. 

Section, status of Methodism in the, 
116. 
West Indian Missions, 110. 
West Indies, Methodism in the, 46. 
Westminster Confession, the, 121. 
Whatcoat, Richard, 68. 
Wheel, the Epw orth, 135, 
Whitechurch, Dorsetshire, 19. 
Whitefleld, George, 15, 24, 26, 29, 36, 

37, 38, 50. 
Whitworth, Abraham, 65. 
Wilberforce, William, Wesley's last 

letter to, 53. 
Wiley, I. W., 85, 138. 
Williams, Robert, 64. 
Winterbourn, vicar of, 19. 



Wise, Daniel, 129, 130. 
Withdrawal of a disaffected few, 46. 
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, 
128. 

Home Missionary Society, 129. 
Women as delegates to the General 
Conference, 89. 

relation of, to the Church, 85. 
Woodhouse Grove School, 110. 
Working Church, a, 119. 
Wroote, John Wesley a curate at, 22. 
Wright, Richard, 65. 

Yearby, Joseph, 65. 
Yellow fever prevalent, 75. 
Young People's Methodist Alliance, 
89. 
societies, 135. 

ZinzQndorf, Count, 27. 

List of authorities quoted : 
Clarke, 17, 18. 
D'Aubigne, 9. 
-Fisher, 7. 
Green, 11, 12, 14. 
Jacob, 6. 
Lecky, 13. 

McClintock and Strong, 8, 72. 
Moore, 20. 
Neely, 69. 
Overton, 23. 
Porter, 120. 
Schaff, 8. 
Seaman, 62, 69. 
Southey,4 9. 
Stevens, 21, 24, 34, 38, 41, 44, 48, 55, 

65, 73, 78. 
Tyerman, 15, 21, 35, 39, 55. 
Vincent, 17. 




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